Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, May 22: The efforts of the Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who volunteered to act as the interlocutor for opposition unity ahead of the 2024 general elections, made a major breakthrough having been able to bring on the same page the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party on the Centre’s ordinance circumventing the Supreme Court judgement on Delhi government’s powers on administration.
After Nitish Kumar met the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and the senior leader Rahul Gandhi in Delhi on Monday, the Congress announced that it would support the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and will oppose the Centre’s executive order on transfers and postings in Delhi in the monsoon session of parliament, which begins in July.
The Ordinance passed by the Centre late on Friday evening overrides a recent order of the Supreme Court which ruled that the elected government enjoyed the administrative powers in Delhi and posting and appointments of bureaucrats serving under it, and instead makes its points man Lieutenant Governor the final arbiter on all disputed issues.
Nitish Kumar has also substantially succeeded in forging unity in the opposition ranks with the Congress asserting that a “vast majority” of non-BJP parties would meet soon. Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal told reporters that the venue and date of the expected meeting would be announced in a day or two.
On the Delhi ordinance issue, top Congress sources said the party would “oppose the Delhi Ordinance in parliament.”
The Congress and Kejriwal’s AAP have not been the best of friends. The Central leaders’ remark supporting the AAP government comes a day after the comments of its senior leader Ajay Maken advising Kejriwal to follow the “Sheila Dikshit model” of engaging with officers respectfully, rather than “mistreating” them.
Sources explained the discrepancy saying the Central leaders of the party are concerned about the BJP government’s “undermining of the Supreme Court” and its “efforts to subvert democracy.” The Ordinance, they said, brings the elected Chief Minister on par with the Chief Secretary giving him one of three votes in a decision. This is also undermining of an elected government, they said.
The Congress had earlier welcomed the landmark judgment of the Supreme Court, which said in a democratic form of governance, the power of administration must rest on the elected arm. If the officers stop reporting to the ministers or do not abide by their directions, the principle of collective responsibility is affected, said the bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud.
The judgment came 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. But the Centre’s Ordinance last week creates a National Capital Civil Services Authority which is tasked with the 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 which meant that two bureaucrats appointed by the central government can nullify any decision of the elected government with the final arbiter being another centre-appointed LG.
The bill on the matter is expected to be brought in parliament in the monsoon session and the BJP is confident that it would be passed in both houses. The current strength of Rajya Sabha is 238 and the majority mark is 119. With both NDA and the opposition currently having 110 seats, a crucial role will be played by Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal and YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSR Congress.
Both parties have 9 seats each and prefer to remain equidistant from the Congress and the BJP. While they have lent issue-based support to the government in the past, it is not clear yet which way they will lean on this occasion. Recently, Naveen Patnaik had made it clear that his party will not be part of the opposition front. The BJD, he said, will go it alone in the 2024 general elections and “that has always been the plan.”
Kejriwal has started a huge outreach to Opposition parties, starting with Nitish Kumar on Sunday. He is expected to meet Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray and Nationalist Congress Party Chief Sharad Pawar on May 24 and 25 in Mumbai to discuss the plan to block the Ordinance in the Rajya Sabha.
Sources said the Congress leaders during their meetings with Nitish Kumar also discussed opposition unity and whether they will attend the inauguration of the new parliament. “Opposition parties’ meet will be held. The date and place of the meeting will be announced within one or two days… A vast number of parties will be taking part in the meeting,” senior Congress leader KC Venugopal told reporters.
After the meeting, Kharge, in a Hindi tweet, said: “Now the country will be united, ‘The strength of democracy’ is our message! Mr. @RahulGandhi and we discussed the current political situation with the Chief Minister of Bihar, Mr. @NitishKumar today and took forward the process of giving a new direction to the country.”
Kumar has so far been successful, bringing on board leaders like Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, who have been hawkish about the Congress, to agree on the need for opposition unity. His only failure has been Naveen Patnaik, the Chief Minister of Odisha known to offer issue-based support to the BJP.
Yesterday, Kumar had met Kejriwal and extended his “complete support” in the ongoing face-off with the Centre over the control of the bureaucrats working in the national capital. Last week Mr Kumar had met his Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee, where he had pitched the “One-On-One” strategy which she accepted.
Strong regional parties should take on the BJP in 2024 on their home turfs and in turn, they would back the Congress in the 200-odd seats where the two national parties are in direct contest, she later said. “You want some good thing, then you have to sacrifice yourself also in some areas,” Ms Banerjee had said.
It was the Bengal Chief Minister who had suggested the idea of a mega meeting in Patna. “Bihar was a symbol of change in the Centre when JP’s (Jayaprakash Narayan) movement started. If we have an all-party meeting in Bihar, we can then decide where we have to go next,” Ms Banerjee had said after her meet with Kumar in Kolkata.
Last week’s oath ceremony of Siddaramaiah in Karnataka following a mega victory of the Congress in the assembly elections had provided an opportunity for a show of opposition unity. Besides Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah had attended the ceremony.
