(S.Ravi Seshu)
Ahead of elections to the Punjab Assembly, where the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) turned out to be a forerunner, Times Now ran an exclusive interview with Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung on the day the Delhi High Court ruled that LG is the administrative head, not the Chief Minister Arvind Kejrival.
The interviewer Navika Kumar and the LG Jung tried their best to fired salvos against Arvind giving enough hints to analysts that it was a planned attempt to corner the AAP head. In States like Tamil Nadu, though the Chief Ministers and Governors didn’t see eye to eye, they never washed the dirty linen in public like this.
Continuing to go soft on the Modi government, Times Now once again fired salvoes on Arvind in the backdrop of the Delhi High Court’s ruling that the L-G is the administrative head of the National Capital Territory and held that no action can be taken by ACB against Central government officials.
The bench, comprising Chief justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath, ruled that decisions taken by the Delhi government without consulting the LG were illegal.
In the News Time interview, Najeeb Jung went out of the way and tried to impress the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said that Arvind used inappropriate language for Prime Minister.”The words used for honourable Prime Minister of India is inappropriate. Those words were used when PM was abroad. The stature of Prime Minister is far ahead from the stature of a chief minister of a Union Territory,” he said.
In a direct attack against the CM, he further said: “We followed Constitutional rules without compromise, unfortunately at times that was not acceptable to elected government. We have followed the Constitution to a ‘T’ ” said Jung to Times Now. “Home Secretaries, Anti-corruption Bureau chiefs are always appointed by the Lt Governor, his (Arvind Kejriwal’s) interpretation of 239-AA is laughable” he added.
Addressing a rare press conference before the Times Now interview, the LG said: “It is not a victory of anyone. It is not a win for Najeeb Jung and loss for Arvind Kejriwal. The court order is a kind of clarification that incorrect things will have to be corrected. When we get elected, we are not rulers of this country. You, me and nobody is the ruler. We will have to work and confine ourselves to our works and jobs which are in the framework of the Constitution.” He said a number of decisions including Delhi Government’s directions to power regulator DERC, appointment of government representatives to BSES Board and certain orders relating to tax will have to be “corrected” as they did not have his concurrence.
AAP announced to challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court. “We respectfully disagree with the high court verdict,” Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said. He argued that there was a “big difference” between any other Union Territory and the national capital and alleged that on the “pretext of rules”, various decisions aimed at curbing corruption have been stalled.
“If Delhi was to be run by the Lt Governor, then why was the Constitution amended to have State assembly. Why provision was made to have an elected government. We were targeted as we tried to rid the city of corruption,” Deputy CM told reporters and said that Kejriwal government was consistently prevented by the LG and Centre from taking any action against corruption since it was formed.
Asked why he did not speak out when Arvind attacked him on several issues, the LG quoted an Urdu couplet – “Waqt aane pe bata denge tujhe aye aasman, Hum abhi se kya batayen kya hamare dil mein.” (When the time comes, we shall show thee, O heaven/For why should we tell thee now, what lurks in our hearts?). True to his words, Times Now and Jung found the right time for an exclusive interview to pin down AAP.
