Amid the ongoing “letter war” between the two administrative heads of Delhi, Lieutenant-Governor V.K. Saxena shot off another missive to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, accusing him and his Cabinet colleagues of “crossing all bounds of propriety” and “running away from constitutional duties and responsibility of governance”. Mr. Saxena asked the Chief Minister to accept his written communication as “Kartavya Patra (letter of duty) from the guardian of the city”.
Responding to the communication, Mr. Kejriwal termed it “another love letter” from the L-G and accused him of working at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Mr. Saxena’s missive follows multiple letters sent by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and other AAP leaders, alleging corruption in the functioning of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and a host of other issues, to the L-G.
Terming the AAP leaders’ letters “baseless”, Mr. Saxena alleged that the Delhi government was surviving on “advertisements and speeches” instead showing commitment to providing for the basic needs of the citizens.
‘Daily fuss’
“I regret to tell you that you and your colleagues, in addition to having overstepped all bounds of propriety regarding my office, are running away from constitutional duties and administrative responsibilities,” the L-G said.
He also said that he was being “personally targeted as per habit” by AAP and its leaders when he sought to remind them of the duties they were supposed to perform.
In response, Mr. Kejriwal tweeted, “The BJP is hell-bent on destroying the lives of the people of Delhi through the L-G by ensuring that he makes a fuss about something or the other on a daily basis. But I want to assure the people of Delhi — till this son of yours is alive, don’t worry. I will not let any harm come to you.”
11 issues raised
The L-G also spoke of 11 issues that he had raised with the Chief Minister while discharging his own constitutional duties. These included the alleged excise policy scam, official files not being signed by Mr. Kejriwal and his Cabinet colleagues and discrepancies in the construction of additional classrooms at Delhi government schools.
Mr. Saxena also mentioned issues related to the Delhi Jal Board, the power department, non-payment of salaries to sewer cleaners and the Chief Minister’s absence from programmes held to commemorate Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri’s birth anniversaries, which he had mentioned in his last communication as well.
“All these issues are related to departments directly under the ambit of the Delhi government. Instead of giving satisfactory answers to the questions raised regarding them, or taking effective steps to address them, you and your colleagues choose every trick to divert public attention by levelling extremely dubious, uncalled for and false allegations against the person raising them,” the L-G alleged.
“I state with extreme pain that you and your colleagues are doing so as per a planned and deliberate policy. First you make baseless accusations, then fan them through social media and the media before shamelessly apologising when facts surface,” he wrote.
Neither he nor the citizens of the Capital, Mr. Saxena added, had received satisfactory answers regarding the issues of public welfare which he had raised so far.
“I hope that you will receive the message through this ‘Kartavya Patra’, which you term a love letter, in the right spirit and endeavour to do what is necessary,” the L-G said, adding that his commitment was solely to the Constitution and what it required him to do.
