Comparing Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who opposed India’s Independence, Delhi Home Minister Satyendar Jain said that the L-G is talking like the Briton and doesn’t have faith in democracy.
“Mr. Jung has never contested an election and is holding the top position without peoples’ mandate. Mr. Churchill said that India cannot be given independence as the people cannot govern themselves. He is using the language of former Viceroys,” Mr. Jain said.
The statement comes a day after the L-G sent an order to all Secretaries and heads of departments in the Delhi government asking for the files of all the decisions taken by the AAP government for which his approval wasn’t sought in the past 18 months.
Criticising the L-G’s order, Mr. Jain said that Mr. Jung has breached his powers and cannot directly communicate with the bureaucrats by surpassing the elected government.
“L-G cannot communicate with officials without going through us. People have elected us and not Mr. Jung to run Delhi,” the Minister said.
The AAP government and the L-G have been at loggerheads since last year April.
A big blow was landed against the AAP on August 4 when the High Court stated that the L-G is the administrative head and Delhi is a Union Territory.
The L-G’s directive came three days after the HC order.
While the Delhi government will approach the Supreme Court to challenge the HC order, Mr. Jain said that if this is how the Delhi government will function then all the five lakh files should be sent to Mr. Jung.
“Let the L-G review all our files and decisions as he has the right to seek any file, but it should be done through proper channels,” Mr. Jain said.
Other AAP leaders also slammed the L-G’s order and attacked the Centre for making Delhi government toothless. AAP’s Kumar Vishwas said that Mr. Jung hates Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and is undermining the Constitution. “I dare the Centre to dissolve the Legislative Assembly,” Mr. Vishwas said.
Education department
Meanwhile, the Education Department has already given directions to its officials to review all orders issued in the past 18 months for which the L-G’s approval wasn’t sought.
While the L-G’s order has set a deadline of August 17, the department has asked the officials to keep the files ready by August 11 as they will be vetted by the Law Department before being sent to Raj Niwas.
