“It will go down in history as to who supports it and who opposes it,” said Raghav Chadha.
New Delhi:
With support from the Congress under its belt, Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party today appealed to all parties to stand by it and oppose a bill on Delhi bureaucrats that is expected to come up in the monsoon session of Parliament. Asked if they were motivated to press the Congress to spell out its stand, AAP’s Raghav Chadha questioned why any party with national interests in mind should hold back from opposing an obviously anti-national bill.
Asked about the response of Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal and YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSR Congress, he said he could only appeal to them to oppose the bill in Parliament.
Who supports it and who opposes it will go down in history. Through your channel I also appeal to every MP of the BJP that this bill is against democracy, it is a violation of the Constitution of India, the federal structure of India – oppose it when it comes and support us,” Mr Chadha told NDTV in an exclusive interview.
In this connection, he quoted the story of the Mahabharata when Yudhishthira, the eldest Pandava brother, just before the Great War, appealed to anyone in the Kaurava army to join him if they thought he had the truth on his side.
The Centre’s recent ordinance to rein in bureaucrats in Delhi is expected to be replaced by a law passed by Parliament in the monsoon session. Mr Kejriwal is canvassing support to block it in the Rajya Sabha. Most of the opposition parties supported him. Congress joined that party today.
AAP is claiming that the bill is an experiment by the BJP-led central government which can be replicated in any state tomorrow.
The ordinance or executive order passed in May overruled a Supreme Court order that said administrative control of Delhi belongs to its elected government.
It created a National Capital Civil Services Authority which is responsible for the posting and transfer of bureaucrats working in Delhi. The Chief Minister, Chief Secretary and Principal Home Secretary will be members who can vote on issues. The final arbiter is the Lt. Governor.
The verdict comes after an eight-year tussle between the Center and the Arvind Kejriwal government following the Centre’s decision in 2015 to place the services department under the control of the lieutenant governor.