Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Feb 28: Two arrested Aam Aadmi Party ministers of Delhi Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain have resigned from the Arvind Kejriwal cabinet soon after a Supreme Court bench led by the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud refused to intervene in the deputy chief minister’s case “at this stage” advising him to avail “alternative remedies” like approaching the Delhi High Court.
The Chief Minister Kejriwal accepted the resignations of his deputy Sisodia and the former health minister Jain who was arrested in an alleged money laundering case in May, last year, but did not resign from the cabinet then. The resignations were not an acceptance of guilt in any way, AAP asserted, describing the resignations by Sisodia and Jain as an administrative step.
The BJP had since Sunday gradually upped the pressure on Kejriwal and the AAP Delhi government to drop both Jain and Sisodia from the Cabinet. “The question that arises now is whether 18 Delhi government departments will be administered from behind bars? You used to set the standards of morality… Today, what you (Arvind Kejriwal) need to answer is when you will drop Sisodia from your cabinet. I am reiterating that the heat of this investigation will soon reach you as well, because the real mastermind of the Excise Scam is you, Arvind Kejriwal”, Delhi BJP spokesperson Harish Khurana said after Supreme Court hearing on Sisodia.
The resignation will be forwarded to the Office of the L-G. He will then forward it to Rashtrapati Bhawan for the President’s nod. Manish Sisodia was arrested on Sunday over allegations of corruption in the Delhi liquor policy case. Before his arrest, he predicted that he would be in jail for “7-8 months.” The Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi had been in charge of 18 ministries, including the health portfolio of Satyendar Jain, who has been in jail for 10 months.
The resignations came soon after the BJP questioned why the arrested ministers were still in the Delhi government. There are now five ministers in the Delhi cabinet, including Mr Kejriwal. The Chief Minister had not kept any ministry, while the rest of the ministers were seen to be underutilized.
Widely seen to be Arvind Kejriwal’s number two in the party and the government, Mr Sisodia had taken charge of a bulk of the ministries, leaving the AAP chief free to focus on the party’s campaign across the country. Kejriwal had, till now, refused to remove the ministers.
When Satyendar Jain was arrested in May over allegations of money laundering, Mr Kejriwal simply transferred his departments to Mr Sisodia. But AAP sources said with Mr Sisodia’s arrest the Delhi government will need ministers to handle key portfolios like finance, health and education.
Mr Kejriwal may be forced to cut back on his trips to other states and take charge of some ministries. Sisodia’s arrest, particularly, will be a huge setback for AAP as it is preparing for the 2024 national election. The Chief Minister had reportedly planned to visit states like Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, where elections will be held later this year.
The developments came soon after the Supreme Court, which had agreed to keep the schedule for hearing Sisodia’s plea challenging his arrest by the CBI on Tuesday evening, refused to hear Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia’s challenge to his arrest in the liquor policy case and advised his counsel to approach other alternatives like “going to the High Court.”
“Just because the incident happened in Delhi that you can approach the Supreme Court,” the bench remarked. It said approaching directly the apex court would set a bad precedence. “Our doors are open but we are not ready to hear it at this stage. The petitioner (Manish Sisodia) has efficacious alternate remedies. We are not inclined to entertain this at this stage under Article 32 (Right to Constitutional Remedies). It will set a very wrong precedent,” the bench said.
The court disagreed with Sisodia’s counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi that the case was parallel to the journalist Vinod Dua’s case. “(Senior Journalist) Vinod Dua’s case was very different. This is a corruption case. Go to High Court,” the court said.
The Supreme Court in June 2021 cancelled a sedition case against journalist Vinod Dua over his criticism of the centre’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mr Dua had come to the Supreme Court directly.
Later this evening, when the Supreme Court took up Mr Sisodia’s request again, it said the Vinod Dua case has no relevance whatsoever with his case as the journalist’s matter was about freedom of speech and expression while his case is about alleged corruption.
Singhvi had told the court that Sisodia’s arrest was illegal as his name was not in the CBI charge-sheet and no unaccounted cash was found in searches. The CBI’s allegation that he was not cooperating in the investigation was a weak excuse, he said.
To this, Chandrachud said, “Go to the high court. Our doors are open, but we are not ready to hear it at this stage.” “This will be a very bad precedent. You can’t do this just because you’re in Delhi,” Justice PS Narasimha said, referring to Mr Sisodia’s request to rule his arrest by the CBI “illegal.”
A Delhi court yesterday gave the CBI Mr Sisodia’s custody for five days. The central agency told the city court it needs time to question him over alleged corruption in making the new liquor policy, which was scrapped after Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena flagged it. The CBI told the Delhi court that Mr Sisodia has been giving evasive replies to their questions and is unable to explain at least six problematic provisions in the liquor policy that were not part of the first draft.
The CBI said the changes were made at the behest of a liquor lobby in exchange for kickbacks to the tune of ₹ 30 crore. Delhi’s ruling AAP, led by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, and opposition parties in the centre including the Trinamool Congress and the Samajwadi Party have condemned the CBI over Mr Sisodia’s arrest. The AAP said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party, the BJP, are scared of Mr Kejriwal and Mr Sisodia’s “rise” and are trying hard to sabotage their plans for the national election next year.
The Trinamool Congress, taking a swipe at PM Modi, said the BJP is left with only a few allies, namely “ED, CBI, I-T”, referring to the Enforcement Directorate and the income tax department, apart from the agency that arrested Mr Sisodia.
The BJP denied the centre has been using the CBI to harass the AAP leaders. The BJP said Mr Sisodia, who is also Delhi’s Education Minister and claims to have made excellent policies to improve schools, cannot hide alleged corruption behind the safety of work done on the education front.