That the Aam Aadmi Party’s Government in Delhi has
been a source of great irritation for the Modi Government over the last three
years is well known. That the Modi Government has used every power in its remit
to obstruct the AAP Government’s functioning and cause a rift within the party
is also a matter of record. That the Modi Government would like to dismiss the
AAP Government and thus erase all existence of the Prime Minister’s most
humiliating electoral defeat is well within the realm of reason. That there is
no love lost between the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister since their 2014
Varanasi face-off goes without saying. It is important to see AAP Government’s
recent controversy with the Chief Secretary in this context.
There has been a long war going on unceasingly almost since
the very moment of the stunning victory by AAP in February of 2015 and the Modi
Government’s conduct has gone beyond the bounds of the law or the constitution
or even common decency. It would not be an exaggeration to say that for AAP it
has been an experience in state-directed repression akin to an Emergency. MLAs
have been arrested on the flimsiest of complaints, pressured to implicate AAP
leaders, ministers, and if possible Arvind Kejriwal himself. Some MLAs have
been arrested on two or more occasions to great media fanfare. That the
judiciary has failed to put a stop to this blatant disregard of law and
procedure by the Delhi Police at the behest of its masters in the Central
Government is not difficult to understand considering the state of Supreme
Court currently and the conduct of the Chief Justice.
Despite this reign of tyranny, the AAP Government has
managed to make a name for itself, in India and abroad, for its innovative and
effective health and educational policies. The vastly improved schools and the
introduction of Mohalla Clinics are a legacy that will far outlive the current
Delhi Government, of that we can be sure.
We have an administrative situation in the Delhi
Government where the senior bureaucracy only looks for instructions to the
unelected and all-powerful Lieutenant Governor who himself behaves as if he is
only responsible to the Central Government and quite possibly only to the PM.
The AAP Government and MLAs who are directly responsible to voters on a daily basis
have no control over what any bureaucrat, big or small, decides to do and as we
know a situation where bureaucrats are left to their own devices without
concern for the needs and complaints of the common man or woman is a recipe for
an administrative catastrophe.
Till such time as the Supreme Court delivers its
judgement on the constitutional question of the powers that the Delhi
Government does or does not have, the AAP Government has been left in this
administrative strait-jacket where they are held responsible for just about
everything that happens in Delhi, by the media and voters, and rightly so, but
the Chief Minister does not even have the power to transfer his chaprassi without
begging the Lieutenant Governor, who takes his own sweet time, and the
bureaucracy seeing this powerlessness of the AAP Government naturally treat
orders from ministers as worthless and refuse to have anything to do with MLAs.
The issue of linking ration cards in Delhi to Aadhaar
had been an issue of grave concern since January 1 when it was introduced and
it was found that due to glitches in the system more 2.5 lakh families were no
longer getting their ration. The inaccessibility of senior bureaucrats in the
Delhi Government became an even more urgent matter now that the issue concerned
was that of providing ration for the poorest of the poor. An irresponsible bureaucracy
unwilling or incapable of even catering to the basic needs of its most needy
citizens should worry us all. A Chief Secretary who oversees such callousness
is naturally not going to be presented with garlands.
Anybody in Delhi can go and see their Chief Minister
on any weekday without an appointment between 10 and 11 a.m. The same goes for
any other AAP minister. The senior bureaucrats of Delhi Government in contrast
think twice before seeing their own ministers. And I do not blame these officers,
because they have been put in this state of fear by the knowledge that their
careers will suffer if they do not do the bidding of their masters on Raisina
Hill. It is instructive that the Chief Secretary went straight to the PMO the
day after the alleged altercation at the Delhi Chief Minister’s residence took
place, bypassing the Home Minister altogether. The Prime Minister is clearly
taking personal interest in the fate of his bête noire.
The ever-depleting independence of the Supreme Court,
Election Commission, CBI, and other institutions during his tenure are enough
proof that the Prime Minister will not think twice before dismissing the Delhi
Government and no doubt the President will rubber stamp it. The prospect of
universal opprobrium that would arise from the decision has never dissuaded the
Prime Minister in the past and is unlikely to do so now. But it would be a
mistake because it would free up Arvind Kejriwal and AAP to campaign nationally
wearing the badge of victimhood in the run-up to the General Election.
After three years in office Kejriwal has a maturity
now borne out of a record of performance to show and alliances with other
opposition parties are also starting to firm up in the most surprising corners.
His foray this week into Tamil Nadu to attend the innaugaration of Kamal
Haasan’s new political party Makkal Needhi Maiam was an early glimpse of what
is to come. Kejriwal looked like a man who had come up for air after a year
closeted in Delhi and there was a gleam in his eye that showed he was ready for
the big battle ahead.
If the Prime Minister does dismiss the Delhi
Government he may find that he has in fact let loose his own worst political nightmare.
