Meeting between CM, L-G ends in acrimony

Was shocked when Saxena said as Delhi’s administrator he can do anything, says Kejriwal; Raj Niwas calls CM’s statements, ‘misleading, patently false and twisted to suit a particular agenda’

Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi Vinai kumar Saxena with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. File. | Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

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A meeting between Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Lieutenant-Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena on Friday, their first since October last year, ended in a stalemate, with both sides sharing their own accounts of what transpired in the meeting and accusing each other of “cooking up” stories.

Addressing a press conference after the meeting, Mr. Kejriwal said, “In 2018, the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court passed an order saying that the L-G has not been entrusted with any independent decision-making powers in the context of the transferred subjects. But the L-G termed the order a ‘mere opinion’ and said he doesn’t accept it.”

Responding to the CM’s allegations, a Raj Niwas official said all statements attributed by Mr. Kejriwal with regard to orders of the Supreme Court were “misleading, patently false, fabricated and twisted to suit a particular agenda”. “These statements are categorically denied,” the official added.

The CM and the L-G have been at the centre of a public spat, which gained momentum after the former wrote a series of letters to Mr. Saxena, questioning his decisions, including his nomination of 10 aldermen to the municipality, which Mr. Kejriwal described as a “fraud on the Constitution”. The L-G responded by inviting the CM for a meeting “in the interest of a conflict-free governance of the city”. The Aam Admi Party regime and the Centre are meanwhile engaged in a legal battle over the control of the Delhi government’s bureaucracy in the Supreme Court.

Went to sort differences

Mr. Kejriwal said that he met the L-G to discuss matters of concern and weed out differences, but was shocked when “the L-G said that he was the ‘Administrator’ of Delhi and that the ‘Administrator’ can do anything he wishes”. He described Mr. Saxena as an “obstructionist”.

In response, the L-G House official said, “the CM will also be well advised to function in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, Parliamentary Acts and the Supreme Court’s judgments, and refrain from running down an existing law just because it has been challenged in the court of law.”

According to the official, the L-G asked the CM not to “politicise every issue”.

The official added that during the meeting, Mr. Saxena discussed various issues of the city, including the state of roads, Yamuna, pollution, delays in projects such as AIIMS redevelopment, corruption in government departments and the fact that no new flyover or underpass has been built in the city over the last eight years.

The L-G also responded to various issues raised by the CM and explained the rationale behind his decisions to appoint 10 aldermen, constitute the Haj Committee and other issues raised by the CM, the official added.

The Delhi government in a statement categorically denied “every single claim made by the L-G office” after the meeting between the two functionaries.

“The L-G office has cooked-up stories that were never discussed in the meeting,” the statement read. It charged the L-G with subverting the Constitution.