A month since the top bureaucrat of the Delhi government was allegedly attacked by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs and former MLAs in the Chief Minister’s house on February 19, the stalemate between officers and the political executives continues.
Alleged attack
On the intervening night of February 19 and 20, Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash was asked to attend a midnight meeting at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence, where he was allegedly assaulted by AAP MLAs in the presence of Mr. Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, states the FIR filed on Mr. Prakash’s complaint.
While the AAP said in a statement that the meeting was called to discuss problems with the public distribution system for rations, Mr. Prakash alleged that he was asked about various issues, including why advertisements to mark the third anniversary of the AAP had been delayed.
Two MLAs, Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal, who were arrested earlier in connection with the case have been released.
On their part, the AAP denied the allegation, with Mr. Sisodia on February 20 terming the charge as “baseless”.
The Delhi Police said they have questioned nine AAP MLAs — Mr. Khan, Mr. Jarwal, Rituraj Govind, Rajesh Rishi, Rajesh Gupta, Nitin Tyagi, Ajay Dutt, Praveen Kumar and Sanjeev Jha.
“Nine of the 11 MLAs present there have been questioned. The remaining two will also be called for interrogation. However, none of those questioned have admitted to have seen the assault. They have all been evasive,” said Additional Deputy Commissioner (North) Harender Singh.
He said the police are yet to decide whether Mr. Kejriwal or Mr. Sisodia will be questioned on the same.
5-minute silent protest
Officers of the IAS (AGMUT), DANICS and DASS cadres have been protesting against the alleged incident by refusing to meet the political executive (apart from statutory meetings) and holding a five-minute silent protest at lunch time everyday.
A joint forum representing associations of IAS, DANICS and DASS officers passed a resolution condemning the alleged incident and demanding that Mr. Kejriwal and Mr. Sisodia apologise.
The forum will hold a meeting on Monday to decide the future course, a representative said adding that the officers would discuss ways to intensify their protest.
The five-minute silence and the restriction to only written communication with the Ministers will continue, said another representative.
Majithia apology
With Mr. Kejriwal on March 15 apologising to former Punjab Minister Bikram Singh Majithia in order to settle a defamation case, an officer asked, “If there can be an apology for him, why not for the CS?”
While the tension continues, five officers that The Hindu spoke to said their work had not been hit due to their refusal to meet the Ministers.
One senior officer said public services, like issuance of licences or services of the Delhi Jal Board, remained unaffected. Only the informal discussions they had with Ministers regarding files or proposals has been affected, said the two senior officers. Now, every communication was written, they added.
Spokespersons for the AAP as well as Social Welfare Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam, who had been reaching out to employees in order to negotiate, could not be reached for comment.
(With inputs from
Hemani Bhandari)
