Delhi statehood: Take the hint, Kejriwal. BJP not serious
The Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi should focus on administration work, instead of confronting the BJP government at the Centre. Whether it is to do with empowering lieutenant-governor Najeeb Jung or disempowering the Anti-Corruption Bureau, or even transferring and posting officials, all these issues are directly or indirectly related to the full statehood status of Delhi. Here are two reasons chief minister Arvind Kejriwal should realise Modi sarkar is not keen to look deeper into the issue:
1. Vision document: Two elections - Jammu and Kashmir in 2014 and Delhi in 2015 - tell us that whenever the BJP has wished to skirt a contentious issue, they have released a vision document instead of a manifesto. In the Delhi Assembly elections, the party released one just four days ahead of the polls and skirted the issue of granting full statehood to Delhi. This was in stark contrast to its stand on earlier occasions. For instance: in its manifesto for the 2013 Delhi Assembly polls as well before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Speaking on the previous occasion, then Delhi BJP chief Harsh Vardhan, who was contesting from Chandni Chowk, said if BJP was voted to power at the Centre, it would work towards granting full statehood to Delhi. However, not sure of its victory in 2015 elections and also because of serious differences among senior leaders, the BJP dropped the statehood issue from its vision document. In the Jammu and Kashmir elections, the BJP had released a vision document on November 27, 2014 and skipped its pet issue of abrogation of Article 370 of Constitution, which grants special status to the state. The party took a U-turn despite the fact that Modi had raked up the matter in an election rally in Jammu in December 2013.
Why did BJP do a u-turn on Article 370? BJP president Amit Shah confirmed all doubts on May 26, by categorically stating that the party did not have 370 members in the Lok Sabha to address this issue as well as on the matter of building the Ram temple in Ayodhya. The vision document should have been a big hint for Kejriwal to know that the BJP had no intention this time in granting full statehood to Delhi.
2. Proxy war: In a gazette notification issued on May 22, the Union home ministry specified the role of the L-G, and indicated that he will have jurisdiction over matters connected with services, public order, police and land. Moreover, it said, the L-G may consult the chief minister whenever he thinks necessary on issues of services using his own “discretion”. The Centre issuing a gazette notification, too, is a clear indication that it does not intend to grant full statehood to Delhi. If the Centre is not ready to part with a relatively small issue of transferring and posting of officials, how can Kejriwal hope that it will allow AAP to run Delhi as a full-fledged state?
It is up to Kejriwal now to take the Centre on over this issue, or look for other battles, internal or external, to pursue.