Accusing the Central government of a conspiracy, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Tuesday that the decision to cancel the appointments of nine advisers to ministers was aimed at Atishi Marlena, his adviser on education.
On the advice from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, the General Administration Department of the Delhi government on Tuesday cancelled the appointment of nine advisers to ministers, saying that the appointments were made without Central clearance.
Reacting to the development, Mr. Sisodia said at a press conference that the BJP-ruled Centre was trying to “derail” the work of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, particularly in education.
Facts not checked
He added that in their hurry to fire the AAP government’s advisers, the Narendra Modi government did not check its facts.
“Four of the nine people sacked had not been working in the government for some time,” he said, referring to Prashant Saxena, Samir Malhotra, Rajat Tiwari and Raghav Chadha.
Mr. Chadha, who is a national spokesperson and member of the national executive of the AAP, had been appointed for two-and-a-half-months to help with the budget preparations in 2016, said Mr. Sisodia.
Mr. Saxena and Mr. Malhotra, who were consultants with Home, Power, PWD, Industries and Health Minister Satyendar Jain and Mr. Tiwari, who was aide-de-camp in Mr. Jain’s office, had quit quite some time ago, he said.
Targeting advisers
“First, they threatened IAS officers and made them stop working. Now, they are going after advisers. Their goal is to go after Ms. Marlena, who earns ₹1 per month to work on education,” he said, referring to the ongoing protests by the bureaucracy in the wake of an alleged attack on the Chief Secretary by AAP MLAs in February.
He added that the appointments of media advisers had been made against the existing posts.
According to a senior official, the elected government has the right to fill 81 co-terminus posts.
“Modi Govt’s order to remove Delhi govt advisors is a conspiracy to derail education revolution in Delhi. Real intention of the order is to paralyse our govt work, since no BJP govt has been able to deliver anything on education & health [sic],” Mr. Sisodia said in a tweet.
Reacting to the news, Mr. Chadha said in a tweet: “Impressive diversionary tactics by the MHA, at the behest of BJP. To divert attention from spate of rapes, cash crunch etc. an opportune time to rake up non issues with AAP like retrospective sacking for a post I held for 45days in 2016 for a paltry sum of Rs.2.50/- [sic].”
