Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister and senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia talks about the party’s preparation for the upcoming municipal corporation elections, its demand for EVM checking and the timing of the allegations levied against the AAP right before the polls on April 23. Here are excerpts from the interaction:
Do you think the Shunglu Committee report, the selective leaking of food bills (₹1,200 per plate), and the eviction notice to your office right before the elections are coincidental?
Nothing is coincidental. All these things, the food bill file which is two years old, the Shunglu Committee report which is eight months old, and the bill of Mr. Ram Jethmalani for the defamation suit have been strategically planned.
How do you view the result of the Rajouri Garden bypolls that came out recently?
Even before the results were announced in Rajouri Garden I had told my party colleagues that people there are angry with us, because their MLA left halfway to contest the elections in Punjab. As a strategist I felt that both elections should have been conducted together. It is unfair that people will have to vote in a gap of a week.
If the boundaries of the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the State Election Commission (SEC) are different, then why should the people of Rajouri Garden suffer for it? But as an afterthought, I now feel that the anger the people had against our party, they have released it by voting against us. So, now when they come to vote for the municipal elections, they will come with a fresh mind.
Couldn’t disillusionment with your party and dissatisfaction with the performance be a reason?
No, that is not the case. When we had interacted with the people there, they told us that they agree that our government had worked for them in the last two years, but our decision of withdrawing the MLA from there and sending him to Punjab was wrong. They told us they will talk to us for the municipal elections, but not here.
In a previous session, Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken had said that the competition in the municipal polls is between them and the BJP. He had alleged that people had enough of the hollow promises that the AAP has made to them?
Delhiites have not yet forgotten the 15 years of Congress governance. In those years, the Congress had reduced the national Capital to a deplorable state. No work was being done by the government departments without bribery. It is not about what Ajay Maken says, it is about what people feel.
They have also said that the traditional Congress vote bank which shifted to AAP in the Assembly elections is back with them now, and the Rajouri Garden bypoll is a proof of it. What do you have to say about that?
I just want to tell them that the municipal elections will show whether their vote bank is back with them. For the first time the voters are saying that work is happening without an exchange deal.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has asked for the postponement of the municipal polls till the EVMs are checked. How serious are the allegations of EVM tampering?
We have asked the election commission to fit VVPAT (voter verified paper audit trail) with the EVMs. If the SEC feels that the arrangement for these VVPATs cannot be done in a week, then take 15 or 20 days. However, arranging the VVPATs immediately should not be a problem for them.
People ask, why didn’t you ask this question when you came to power winning 67 out of 70 seats. No, we did not and we did not even question the BJP’s Lok Sabha win or their win in many other States. But now there is evidence of tampering. Why is the SEC so oblivious to these allegations? And not just us, other parties are also demanding inspection of EVMs.
How tough is the challenge of the municipal elections for the AAP?
Every election is tough. Unfortunately, the process of elections in this country is not issue-based. It is not just about political parties and public, there are several other vested interests at play. Earlier when we were fighting the Assembly elections, power companies, private schools, tanker mafia were all stakeholders, and in the municipal elections too the touts and the middlemen play a role in things even as small as building a house. Our fight is against all these elements.
Your fight not against the BJP or the Congress?
These are just parties. More than them, our fight is against these middlemen who give spark to corruption. Both the BJP and the Congress have joined hands with these corrupt elements, but we don’t adjust. We are blamed for that by a section that used to gain out of these practices, but there is no midway for us. When you adjust to such practices, and ask private schools to ‘adjust’ four of your admissions and in return they can sell four seats — it never stops at just that. They will sell 40 seats in turn for adjusting four of yours. So, if I put my foot down and say that there will be no recommendations from my office and you (the schools) also close your business of selling seats, then the account is maintained at zero. They, the corrupt people, feel comfortable with BJP and Congress, with us they feel uncomfortable.
How is your approach towards municipal polls different from what it was in the Assembly elections?
When we had come to power in Delhi, the people had some basic needs such a water, power, education, and health. These are very generic needs and the people want the government to fulfil these first. Similarly, in the municipal elections too, the basic problems that people face are sanitation, sewage, maintenance of parks, permission for the construction of houses etc. In many cases now, if we want undertake a project in their (municipal corporations) jurisdiction they do not even give a no-objection certificate (NOC).
For instance, in my constituency I had used the MLA fund to construct a road. The councillor there stopped the work saying that we did not have the permission to do this, because the road belonged to MCD. That is why we are fighting for MCD.
If you are voted to power in the MCD, do you think your government’s functioning will be easier?
A lot of our work will become easier. The resistance that we are facing now will be eased.
Do you feel that loss of office in the middle of the campaign has in a way discouraged volunteers?
They do not know, but unintentionally by doing this they have created sympathy for us among the voters. People feel this was the lowest they could have gone, and it is. We are the ruling party. They could have told us to complete the formalities, if there was some problem, but instead they just outrightly asked us to vacate.
Do you think after your performance in Goa and Punjab, your popularity has increased nationwide or do you consider this a setback?
We were fully prepared for these elections, and we were also expecting to win. However, after the results I feel we haven’t performed too badly. It was our first (Assembly) election there (in Punjab) and we managed 20 seats.
However, I do not feel that the loss of even win in Punjab polls would have affected our performance here. Our performance in Punjab spoiled our chances in Punjab. These are two separate elections, and separate States.
House tax abolishment is your primary promise in these elections and it has attracted criticism from your opponents. Do you have an action plan for it?
I don’t understand the criticism. Initially, they said that this cannot be done without Parliament’s approval, but when I countered it saying that we will use the same provisions using which they exempted the house tax for BJP leader Vijay Goel’s bungalow in Chandni Chowk, they had nothing to say.
However, something that we had also considered before announcing this as our party agenda was the finances. When we overtook the government, we started with ₹32,000 crore. Today, after three budget sessions, we now have a budget of ₹48,000 crore. We could achieve that because we could fix leakages in the revenue collection system. At present, advertisements and parking are the biggest areas where corruption is rampant, and many of these companies are set up by BJP members and their families and they are majorly benefiting from it.
Many of your MLAs and ministers have been slapped with criminal cases. Your government also has an antagonistic relationship with the Lieutenant-Governor. How difficult is it to run a government under such circumstances?
It is very difficult, but we never expected it to be a cakewalk. Like I had said earlier, we don’t adjust. If someone is indulging in any corrupt practices, I will not spare him, even if he is from my own party. I get several calls every day asking for favours, but I have never entertained any. People should mend their ways, instead of expecting the government to suit their needs.
Is there any difference between the working of former L-G Najeeb Jung and the present L-G, Anil Baijal?
Mr. Jung initially was very cooperative, but somehow he became very rigid later. This could be because of the brief of ‘productiveness’ he received from the Centre. With Mr. Baijal, my experience so far has been good. He considers and discusses things with us. Another good thing about him is that he has worked in Delhi, so he understands the city.
Your party has been asked to pay ₹97 crore for the advertisements that the Delhi government had issued, a part of which you have already paid to the advertisers. What do you have to say about the whole episode?
This is quite hilarious actually. This has two parts to it -- first is that AAP has not issued these advertisements nor does it have any stake in the whole transaction, then why should it pay? Second, who has decided? The committee that has decided that the AAP has to pay has the BJP’s slogan writer as one of its members. This committee doesn’t even have the power to give out such orders. The order is rubbish.
There is a general allegation on your party that it lacks internal democracy and that was the reason why Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan quit AAP. Is the party doing anything to improve internal democracy?
I challenge that there is no political party in this country which is more democratic than we are. In our party, no two people from the same family are given tickets in elections. Which party has such democracy?
In many Delhi government schools admissions are not being given to children who do not have Aadhaar card. This is against the Right to Education (RTE) rules. Any comments?
I agree with this, and I have fixed that problem. Many of the students and parents approached me in this regard. But the problem has been fixed now and children do not need Aadhaar card for admission.
