On a day when the Delhi High Court vindicated the Aam Aadmi Party-led Government’s ubiquitous battle against corruption, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal spilled the beans on the specifics of its anti-graft machinery at the Janta ki Cabinet organised here on Monday.
In the background of the government’s recent tussle with the Centre over the issue of appointments of bureaucrats was a controversial Ministry of Ministry of Home Affairs notification limiting the jurisdiction of its anti-graft body, the Anti-Corruption Branch declared in July, 2014.
The issue came to the fore after Delhi Police registered a case of kidnapping against ACB officials, who had arrested a head constable in connection with a bribery case in mid-April.The matter reached the Delhi High Court which, on Monday, decided that the ACB must take its orders from Mr. Kejriwal’s government, not the Centre and was free to investigate graft complaints irrespective of jurisdiction.
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In reaction to the development, an elated Chief Minster tweeted: “Today’s HC judgement a huge embarassment for central govt [sic].”
This, even as an effort was made to somewhat placate the police, the bureaucracy and the media with whom he and his Cabinet locked horns on more than one occasion during their first 100 days in office.
“There are two kinds of corruption: one that is underlined by extortion and the other that involves two or more corrupt persons looking the other way at their respective misdeeds; I’m happy to observe that levels of both have come down drastically,” Mr. Kejriwal declared from the dais at a crowded Central Park.
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He went on to enumerate the reason for the same — crack surveillance teams which had their eyes ‘on everybody’.
“We have surveillance teams that, at a moment’s notice, are despatched to Government offices and Departments as soon as any complaint of corruption is reported, put the accused official under surveillance and apprehend him or her.”
His Deputy Manish Sisodia claimed his Government’s stance against graft had provided the answer to questions of inadequate finances for the implementation of the AAP’s 70-point agenda. He said the government’s tax collection had shot up despite ‘zero raids and intimidation’, crediting the ‘honesty’ of the traders and businessmen for the same.
“Last year, between April and May, just Rs.2,088 crore had been collected by way of tax. This year, as much as Rs.2,924 crore has been collected in tax solely due to the honesty of the average Delhi tax payer and despite the fact that not even a single raid was conducted against anyone,” he said, adding that ‘it was as difficult to be corrupt in Delhi now as it was being honest before’.
Usually found at loggerheads with the media, police and bureaucracy, Mr. Kejriwal and his Cabinet spoke in a relatively more conciliatory tone to each section on Monday. Representatives of all three sections were, in fact, even lauded at cue. Mr. Kejriwal acknowledged the media’s role in his electoral success with a blunt “Thank you media” in response to a question about his usually “bitter attitude” towards journalists.
Mr. Sisodia chose to address the police when any reference to the government’s commitment to ‘making the lives of uniformed men and women better’ was made. “We would be nothing without uniformed men and women guarding us here in the role of the police and at the borders as the Army.”