The Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) controversy continued to generate heat on Friday with Delhi’s Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung writing to the Centre that the Delhi government’s Commission of Inquiry into the “scam” was legally invalid. The Arvind Kejriwal government was quick to call it “unjustified interference” and an attempt to block the government’s probe into “corruption.”
Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said the Congress’s and AAP’s bid to malign Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will boomerang on them. “The Congress and the new-found ally AAP are determined toattempt to malign the reputation of the Finance Ministerwithout any basis… But like on other occasions, this will also boomerang on them,” he said.
Within the BJP, too, the day saw the suspended leader Kirti Azad pose three questions to party chief Amit Shah in reply to his suspension notice.
Sources said Mr. Jung has written to the Home Ministry, saying the Commission of Inquiry Act, 1952, empowers only the Centre and the State governments to appoint a commission.
“Delhi still being a union territory doesn’t have such powers and only the Centre can set up such a commission and, that too, through the L-G,” said sources in the Raj Niwas.
Meanwhile, Mr. Azad, who has just returned from Ahmedabad, sent his reply to the party’s notice to suspend him.
His reply says that since the suspension notice made no mention of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) controversy, he presumes the matter is “beyond the purview of the party.” He has also sought to know the evidence of his “collusion” with the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party, a charge made against him by the BJP. Mr. Azad has also asked for specific instances of anti-party activities he has been accused of, saying he has been a “loyal worker” since he joined the party in 1993.
This happened a day after party veterans L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Shanta Kumar and Yashwant Sinha, now in the party’s Margdarshak Mandal — which many see as a sign of their having been sidelined — took stock of the situation. They are believed to be unhappy at the hasty turn of events.
While there was buzz through the day that there was disquiet even within the RSS over the way the BJP handled the DDCA row, an RSS leader told The Hindu: “It is the party’s internal matter.”
Mr. Azad will now seek to get in touch with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the leaders of the Margdarshak Mandal.
The latest round of differences between the Delhi government and the Lieutenant-Governor comes up days after the Delhi Assembly, at a special one-day session, passed a resolution to set up an inquiry commission to be headed by the former Solicitor-General, Gopal Subramaniam, to look into the “irregularities” in the DDCA.
In August, Mr. Jung had written to the Ministry of Home Affairs that the commission to probe the CNG Fitness scam should be set aside.
The Ministry had declared the commission null and void.
Who said what
“ Modi is a coward and a psyhcopath... When Modi couldn't handle me politically, he resorts to this cowardice. ”
“ Mr. Kejriwal seems to believe in untruth and defamation, delivered in a language that borders on hysteria. ”
“ Don’t go by rumours that I have been gagged, my fight is against corruption in sports and it shall continue ”
How the events unfolded
CBI raids the Delhi CM ‘s office.
A Central Bureau of Investigation raid on the secretariat of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday morning triggered a political storm, with a united opposition accusing the Narendra Modi government of political vendetta using the CBI. Following the raid, the Delhi CM was locked out of his office for the day. Read more
Kejriwal takes to Twitter
CBI raids my office
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) December 15, 2015
When Modi cudn't handle me politically, he resorts to this cowardice
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) >December 15, 2015
Modi is a coward and a psycopath
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) >December 15, 2015
Parliament disrupted
Parliament saw an uproar over the raid on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's office, with Opposition parties rallying behind the AAP leader. Rajya Sabha was adjourned after uproar over CBI raids at Delhi Secretariat. Read more
Government responds
Centre said the raids were conducted on Mr. Kejriwal's Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar who has been named as an accused in a corruption case.
Union Minister Prakash Javadekar reacts to the Delhi raids (watch)
Who is Rajendra Kumar?
- » Principal Secretary of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal.
- » An Indian Administrative Service (IAS) official belonging to the 1989 batch of the Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territories (AGMUT) cadre.
- »The Hindu has learnt that Mr. Kejriwal had first received a complaint alleging that Mr. Kumar was involved in graft from international anti-graft watchdog Transparency International India on May 27, 2015.
Kejriwal names Jaitley
On December 15th evening, Mr. Kejriwal organised a press conference during which he claimed the CBI sleuths were looking for files pertaining to the DDCA scam.
The real purpose of the CBI raid in his office was to spirit away a file in which Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was the central figure in a scam pertaining to the Delhi and District Cricket Association, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has alleged.
“Which file was CBI looking for in my office? DDCA files in which Arun Jaitley is in dock. I was about to order a commission of enquiry,” he later tweeted.
More ‘Evidence’
Terming the alleged DDCA scam as the 'Commonwealth Games Scam of Cricket,' AAP held a press conference to 'expose' the alleged massive corruption in DDCA, when it was headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Read more
Jaitley’s response
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley accused Kejriwal of spreading “false propaganda”, saying he seems to believe in untruth and defamation and delivers a language that borders on hysteria.
By referring to some facts of 2014 and 2015, Mr. Kejriwal cannot drag him in the Delhi cricket body case as he left cricket administration in 2013, he said. Read more
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