Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, on Friday, trained his guns at the Narendra Modi-led Centre over the abrupt shunting of a senior bureaucrat without what he alleged was prior consultation with the Delhi government.
Questioning whether Mr. Modi was at the helm of a 'dictatorship' bent upon interfering in the internal affairs of an elected government, Mr. Sisodia during a press conference at the Secretariat questioned the recent transfer of VAT Commissioner Vijay Kumar, whom he credited with cracking the whip on prominent tax evaders.
He also hinted at the possibility of 'pressure from powerful (trader) lobbies' behind the move.
“Mr. Kumar had unearthed a racket of a firm which was running 40 forged companies in a single room in Janakpuri and evading tax of Rs. 100 crore and was involved in Rs. 1,000 crore of business and its connection might be of hawala racket. Kumar was transferred soon after he unearthed this racket, by the Centre without consulting the Delhi government,” he said.
“Coming at this time, so close to the festival of Deepwali when most tax evasion takes place, makes the move suspect. It is wrong that an elected government cannot select even its VAT Commissioner. This is not democracy, but dictatorship. Delhi cannot be run by dictatorship. It is an elected government’s prerogative to choose its VAT commissioner,” Mr. Sisodia further said.
“(Narendra) Modi government has directly taken charge of the transfer-posting business which we had stopped. I want to ask Modiji whether he would let an elected Delhi government run under pressure of strong lobbies,” he added.
The Delhi government issued relieving orders for Mr. Kumar, in addition to three other IAS officers belonging to the AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territories) cadre which also included Deputy Commissioner (North MCD) Padma Jaiswal, Special Commissioner (Food & Supplies) Department B R Singh and Deputy Commissioner (East District) Kunal, on Thursday following the issuance of their transfer orders from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
Mr. Kumar has been transferred to Lakshadweep while three others have been sent to Goa. Mr. Sisodia also compared the goings-on to what he referred to as 'the old system of transfer postings'.
“I suspect that there is role of a big lobby behind Mr. Kumar’s transfer. It has been an old system under which officers earlier used to be transferred when they crack whip on prominent persons which was a business of corruption. We will not tolerate this at any cost,” he said.
Sisodia questioned the recent transfer of VAT Commissioner Vijay Kumar, whom he credited with cracking the whip
on prominent tax evaders
