Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, May 25: The Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has also succeeded in netting the supports of the Nationalist Congress Party and the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction) in his efforts to unite the Opposition to defeat the Centre’s bill on control of Delhi bureaucrats in Rajya Sabha.
Kejriwal told Uddhav Thackeray and the NCP supremo Sharad Pawar that the gameplan of the BJP was creating “a very dangerous situation for the country.” “This is not a matter merely of opposition, it is a matter of the country,” he said.
Kejriwal has already met his Bengal and Bihar counterparts Mamata Banerjee and Nitish Kumar respectively. Much hope, though, rides on the meeting with Sharad Pawar, one of the most respected and veteran political leaders in the opposition camp. There is speculation that Mr Pawar’s help might be needed to bring the Congress on board with the Rajya Sabha strategy.
“Sharad Pawar sir is one of the biggest leaders of the country today. I request Mr. Pawar that while he himself is supporting us, please help us garner support from other parties of the country,” Kejriwal said at a joint press conference where he shared stage with Pawar and other NCP leaders.
“My thinking is that Arvind should get support by talking to non-BJP parties — be it the Congress or BJD,” Sharad Pawar said. “This is not the time for arguments. Democracy has to be saved… I have completed 56 years in politics. The advantage of this is that if you go to any part of the country, everyone is familiar,” Pawar added. “After leaving tomorrow, I’ll seek an appointment with Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi,” Kejriwal responded.
The Congress is yet to spell out its stand on the matter and said it would do so only after conferring with its regional leaders, many of whom are against the idea of aiding regional parties. The Delhi unit of the Congress is at loggerheads with Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party, and its senior leader Ajay Maken has been blunt in his criticism of AAP.
Bringing the Congress on board is essential if AAP has to win the Rajya Sabha battle. The party has 31 MPs in the upper house. The Trinamool Congress has 12 MPs, NCP has four, and Shiv Sena (UBT) has three members and AAP has 10 MPs.
The bill on the matter is expected to be brought in parliament in the monsoon session and the BJP is confident that it will be passed in both houses. The NDA currently have 110 seats — close to the majority mark of 119. The opposition too, has 110, meaning if all the parties come on board, the role of non-aligned parties like Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal and Andhra Pradesh’s ruling YSR Congress will become crucial.
The Centre’s Ordinance promulgated last week overrides a recent order of the Supreme Court, which said the elected government is the boss of Delhi in terms of control of bureaucrats. It creates a National Capital Civil Services Authority which is tasked with postings and transfers of bureaucrats serving in Delhi. The Chief Minister, the Chief Secretary and the Principal Home Secretary will be members who can vote on issues. The final arbiter is the Lieutenant Governor.
The ordinance was aimed at circumventing a Supreme Court order earlier this month which decided the power balance in the Delhi administration in favour of the elected Delhi government while the BJP-government at the centre always wanted to control the administration through its appointee the Lieutenant Governor. The SC judgement had come after an eight-year tussle between the Centre and the Arvind Kejriwal government, following the Centre’s decision to place the Services department under the control of the Lieutenant Governor in 2015.