A day after the President rejected the Bill passed by the Delhi Assembly last year to exempt 21 AAP MLAs appointed as Parliamentary Secretaries from the purview of ‘Office of Profit’ criteria, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Tuesday that his MLAs were not yet disqualified as the Election Commission was yet to take a decision on the issue.
Mr. Kejriwal told reporters that it was likely that the file hadn’t even gone to the President and that it was the Ministry of Home Affairs that was taking such decisions to dislodge his government.
‘Modi scared of AAP’
The CM said that none of the Parliamentary Secretaries get any perks even as those appointed in the BJP-ruled States get cars, bungalows, and those in Punjab get Rs. 1 lakh as salary.
There are Parliamentary Secretaries appointed in BJP States like Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat and in other States like West Bengal, Nagaland and Puducherry. “But Modiji is only after Delhi and the reason is obvious,” said the Delhi CM, “He is scared of AAP”.
Accusing the Prime Minister of not letting his government work, Mr. Kejriwal said that the PM hasn’t been able to accept the defeat in Delhi elections. “Modiji had once said that Soniaji wasn’t letting the Parliament function as she hasn’t accepted the Lok Sabha results. Similarly, Modiji hasn’t accepted BJP’s defeat in Delhi,” he said.
The CM said that it was clear that the 21 MLAs don’t come under ‘office of profit’ criteria as no extra salary or office is given to them.
He claimed that he took the decision as his MLAs were highly qualified to handle additional responsibility. Defending his decision to appoint the Parliamentary Secretaries, Mr. Kejriwal said that many of his MLAs are qualified and these MLAs get ground reports and give it to the Ministers. “We gave them extra responsibility and no money. It’s written: no perk or remuneration. If someone is doing extra work for free so what is the problem of Narendra Modi,” he added.
Kejriwal says his MLAs were not yet disqualified as the poll panel was yet
to take a decision
