Will Delhi be UT without Assembly?
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, August 2: The Lok Sabha on Wednesday may pass the Delhi Services Authority Bill to negate the effect of the Supreme Court verdict which had given the superintendence of the officials to the elected government in the national capital. Parliament has the legislative heft to tweak laws to suit the political demands of the time.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has shown an extraordinary dexterity to enlist support of the fence-sitters in the Rajya Sabha to push contentious legislations. Notwithstanding the Opposition MPs claiming that the Delhi Services Bill is an assault to the federal structure, the contentious legislative piloted by Union Minister for Home Affairs Amit Shah will sail through in the Rajya Sabha also. Both the Houses of Parliament are passing bills amid din, while the no-confidence motions moved by the Opposition MPs have been accepted by the Chairs.
Former Delhi government secretary Shailja Chandra in an opinion piece had argued that the Supreme Court would have to rule whether Parliament could pass such a bill by using a provision of the law by which the Assembly in the national capital and thereby the city government had come into existence. While the apex court may revisit the issue in future, the BJP leaders had been loud-thinking for almost a year if Delhi needs an Assembly at all. Their arguments betray defeatist mindset of the leaders in the national capital.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is politically and electorally unchallenged in the city politics. The Congress has ceded space to the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for all practical purposes. The BJP launched several campaigns against Kejriwal with zero effects. Even while two of the former ministers (Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain) from the AAP are in jails, the BJP failed to put the Kejriwal-led outfit on the mat.
The backdrop, which gained seriousness after the BJP’s loss in the elections for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), appears fuelling loud-thinking in the saffron outfit in the city that the national capital needs to be administered directly by the Centre. They claim that it was a folly of the past that led to the establishment of the Delhi Assembly to “fulfil the aspirations of Madan Lal Khurana” to become the chief minister of the national capital.
With no control over the officials, Kejriwal will be a toothless head of the executive in Delhi. His predecessor Sheila Dikshit had enjoyed close working relations with the officials, while most of her tenure coincided with the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government headed by Manmohan Singh. With the legislative shield of impunity to the officials from the pulls and pressures of the elected government in the national capital, Kejriwal may play the victim card and enjoy the status of the chief minister with no accountability. Will Kejriwal enjoy such luxury if Prime Minister Narendra Modi returns with a third mandate in 2024?
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