In the midst of the turf war between the Aam Aadmi Party government and the Centre, the three BJP MLAs, overwhelmingly outnumbered by the AAP lawmakers, made their presence felt in the Delhi Assembly during its recent two-day special session by resorting to tactics which were seen as deliberate provocative gestures.
All the three BJP MLAs trooped into the well of the House while alleging that Speaker Ram Niwas Goel was taking a “biased stand” on the issue of division of powers in the Capital being debated in the House. One of them, Om Prakash Sharma, demanded that Mr. Goel step down from his chair.
On another occasion during the debate, Mr. Sharma alleged that the AAP government was targeting the Lieutenant Governor because he belonged to a minority community. An angry Mr. Goel called in marshals who shunted Mr. Sharma out of the Assembly.
With her appointment as acting chief secretary stirring up a major controversy, IAS officer Shakuntala Gamlin was one of the most-watched senior officials attending the public meeting of Arvind Kejriwal’s Cabinet at Central Park in Connaught Place last week.
Ms. Gamlin arrived for the meeting around 15 minutes before the Cabinet took stage and found a place with other IAS officers in the audience, leading to a rush of Press photographers.
Reporters from the TV channels, too, were keen for a reaction, but they were politely refused by the officer.
With the organisers later noting her presence, she was asked to share the stage with senior officials. She was ultimately made to sit next to Chief Secretary KK Sharma, who incidentally joined office on the same day after a 10-day break to the US.
AAP leader Kumar Vishwas might have been out of action after the controversy surrounding a woman party colleague, but the Hindi poet was a star attraction, especially among the AAP supporters and volunteers, at the open public meeting of Arvind Kejriwal Cabinet at Central Park.
As Mr. Vishwas arrived late, he was directed by volunteers to the audience section, occupied by AAP legislators and senior officials.
He was offered a seat by one of the AAP members and was given special attention by AAP volunteers, who kept enquiring if he was comfortable, shared pleasantries and clicked selfies with him.
Several senior functionaries of the Aam Aadmi Party-led (AAP) Delhi Government were caught napping during Vidhan Sabha proceedings here this week.
These included senior ministers from the AAP’s cabinet of ministers — including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia — who dozed off soon after initiating the said proceedings for a specially-convened emergency session of the Delhi Assembly on Tuesday.
While Mr. Kejriwal and Mr. Sisodia — seated closest to Assembly speaker Ram Niwas Goel — were caught snoozing on video their cabinet colleagues Asim Mohammed Khan and Sandeep Kumar were caught napping too sometime later.
A senior Government functionary said that while the Government did not condone their actions, the dozing off was directly attributable to the AAP cabinet’s daily routine. “The entire cabinet begins working and is activated early in the morning everyday and work hard till late at night; they’re human beings, not machines, after all,” the official said.
Contributed by Vishal Kant, Jatin Anand, Mohammed Iqbal
