Alleging that Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena was acting like a ‘tribal chieftain to appease his big boss’, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said in the Delhi Assembly on Wednesday that the Supreme Court had told in 1998 that administrator means that the lieutenant governor will work on the advice of the elected government.
Addressing the Delhi Assembly on the third day of its ongoing winter session, Sisodia said, “Baba Saheb (B R Ambedkar) had mentioned municipal governance in the fifth entry in List II in the Constitution. Local governance is a transfer subject. But the LG is neither following democracy, nor the Constitution.”
Referring to the LG, Sisodia said, “He is acting like the chieftain of a tribe who is told that it is your job to oppress the people of this tribe. We have seen in movies that the chieftain of the clan obeys his elder chieftain to please him.”
“Vijendra Gupta ji (BJP MLA), your party does not give respect to the educated people. Your party only gives respect to those who open emergency gates in airplanes,” Sisodia said.
Blaming the LG over the appointment of presiding officer for the Mayoral polls for Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), Sisodia said, “The LG is lying that I sent six names for the presiding officer. I had sent only one name. The LG needed to give his opinion, not take a decision.”
“Similarly, in the appointment of aldermen, the names came from the BJP and by putting pressure on the officials, they (BJP) got the notification done,” Sisodia claimed.
Addressing the winter session of Delhi Assembly on Tuesday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal hit out at the Lieutenant Governor over the ongoing tussle between the AAP government and the LG office over sending government school teachers to Finland for training purposes.
“We have the money of the people of Delhi who pay taxes. It is on taxpayers’ money that the elected government of Delhi is sending teachers for training to Finland. Who is LG to stop them,” Kejriwal asked.
“It seems like ‘Begani Shaadi Mein Abdullah Deewana’ (a person who takes too much interest in the affairs of others). Why is the LG sitting on our head? The LG is saying get the training done in the country itself… Why get it done here,” the Chief Minister questioned.
Kejriwal added that in a bid to motivate them and increase their efficiency, 30 teachers need to go to Finland for training.
Earlier, on January 16, Kejriwal, Sisodia and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs, held a protest march towards the Lieutenant Governor’s office alleging that the Lieutenant Governor was creating hurdles in the Delhi government’s works.
The protest march was held after the Delhi Assembly adjourned for the day on January 16 amid heated exchanges between BJP and AAP MLAs over the government’s “inaction” to fight pollution and the lieutenant governor’s alleged interference in the functioning of the government.
Kejriwal and the AAP members were carrying placards reading, “Let the teacher go to Finland”, during the protest march.
The AAP and the Lieutenant Governor are at loggerheads over a training visit to Finland by Delhi government school teachers. The party alleged that the LG had sent back the files pertaining to sending the teachers to Finland twice, citing different grounds.
“We had to send 30 teachers to Finland in March, but the LG sent its file back with objections. Again, we submitted our reply to the objections but the LG has again sent it back with a remark that a cost benefit analysis should be done,” Sisodia said.
The AAP had also alleged that both the LG and the BJP were “conspiring against” the education system of the National Capital.