During the hearing of the case related to Arvind Kejriwal, a question was asked to the Enforcement Directorate in the Delhi High Court, will it arrest the Chief Minister of Delhi again? This question seems to be a cause of worry for the Aam Aadmi Party.
This question can be asked only when the court gets some indication from the behavior and arguments of the Enforcement Directorate. However, the hearing has been postponed for later. Meaning, that hearing will now take place after hearing some other cases.
Delhi High Court judge Justice Nina Bansal told the Enforcement Directorate, “I am confused… what do you want to do? Are you going to arrest him again?”
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Arvind Kejriwal has got interim bail from the Supreme Court in the Enforcement Directorate case, but he is not being released due to not getting bail in the CBI case. Arvind Kejriwal had also got bail from the trial court, but the Delhi High Court had stayed the ED’s appeal. The decision was not even announced yet, when the CBI arrested Arvind Kejriwal.
Arvind Kejriwal’s lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi had described the CBI’s action as an insurance arrest, and senior lawyer Vikram Choudhary, who was arguing the case in the High Court, called the arrest a case of blatant harassment.
This is just an example of Arvind Kejriwal’s legal battle in the Delhi liquor policy case. Earlier, Arvind Kejriwal was trying to fight this battle in a political way. Not responding to the 9 summons of ED was a part of the political battle while staying within the legal limits. Still, no move worked and Arvind Kejriwal had to go to jail. It is true that Arvind Kejriwal got interim bail from the Supreme Court for a few days in the name of election campaign, but at present there is no ray of hope of coming out.
Even during interim bail, Arvind Kejriwal was not allowed to go to the office, nor could he take part in any government work, except when his signature on a file as the Chief Minister was absolutely necessary.
Arvind Kejriwal is running the government from jail, but how the government is running is all in front of everyone. Now a new problem has cropped up regarding the 15th August program in Delhi. Every year on the occasion of Independence Day, the Delhi government organizes a program at the Chhatrasal Stadium, and till last year, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal used to hoist the flag – but due to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal being in jail, it is not possible for him to hoist the flag.
In such a situation, Arvind Kejriwal has written a letter to Delhi’s Deputy Governor VK Saxena. Through the letter, Arvind Kejriwal has informed that Delhi government minister Atishi will hoist the flag in his place. Both BJP and Delhi Congress have protested against this move of Arvind Kejriwal citing protocol.
The pros and cons of remaining the Chief Minister
Arvind Kejriwal has about six months left in his term as the Chief Minister of Delhi. Apart from his political opponents, no one has objected to Arvind Kejriwal’s continuing as the Chief Minister legally or constitutionally. Petitions were filed in the courts several times and questions were raised but they were dismissed saying that it depends on Arvind Kejriwal whether he wants to remain the Chief Minister or not.
Aam Aadmi Party had also conducted a survey among the people of Delhi regarding running the government from jail, and then it was also claimed that most of the people are of the opinion that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal should run the government from jail – and accordingly Arvind Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party are talking about taking care of the sentiments of the people of Delhi.
According to the letter written to the LG of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal has said, ‘On August 15, Minister Atishi will hoist the flag in my place.’
After Delhi’s Deputy CM Manish Sisodia was sent to jail, Arvind Kejriwal handed over most of his responsibilities to Atishi. Even today, Atishi has the responsibility of most departments of the Delhi government – but she has not been made the Deputy CM.
Even after Manish Sisodia went to jail, there was no impact on Arvind Kejriwal’s government responsibilities, he remains the Chief Minister without Portfolio as before. Obviously, this arrangement will also be a part of Arvind Kejriwal’s strategy.
The question is what benefit is Arvind Kejriwal getting from remaining the Chief Minister? Being the Chief Minister has neither stopped his arrest nor is he able to come out of jail. So far only one or two benefits have been seen. Firstly, he got interim bail for election campaigning, and secondly – during court hearings, an argument is given for him that he is a Chief Minister, not a habitual offender.
Now if Arvind Kejriwal had made someone else the Chief Minister in his place, there would have been some benefit. Before Arvind Kejriwal, if Hemant Soren wanted, he could have done this, leaders like Lalu Yadav and BS Yeddyurappa could have done it too. And Arvind Kejriwal will have to accept that even if Hemant Soren is not there, Lalu Yadav and Yeddyurappa are more experienced than him.
If Arvind Kejriwal had made someone else the Chief Minister in his place, at least government work would have continued in Delhi. The promise of giving one thousand rupees to women would have been implemented by now, and the Aam Aadmi Party would have benefited from it. There are many other works which would have been unaffected by his being in jail.
Congress leaders or BJP leaders do not ask Arvind Kejriwal why he remained silent on the death of UPSC candidates? And there is no need to write a letter to LG authorizing someone to hoist the flag.
And the biggest advantage would have been that Arvind Kejriwal could have taken advantage of such a system even while being in jail till the elections. After all, while Hemant Soren was in jail, Champai Soren was also working in the same way as the government schemes were already running. Rabri Devi was also running the government in Bihar, and if seen from a political point of view, Lalu Yadav was also running the government from jail – in fact, Arvind Kejriwal falters at this very point in politics, and has to suffer the consequences much later.
Kejriwal’s own moves are backfiring
Ever since Arvind Kejriwal became the Chief Minister of Delhi, there has been a special allegation that the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, appointed by the Centre, does not allow the government elected by the people to do any work. He keeps creating hurdles in every work. The Chief Minister of Delhi does not even have the authority to make appointments and transfers of officers.
If this is indeed the case then instead of Arvind Kejriwal, the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi should have been embroiled in the liquor policy scam – how should this issue be understood after all?
Looking at Manish Sisodia and Arvind Kejriwal getting involved in the Delhi liquor scam, it seems that the allegations being made against the LG are baseless. This is like half truth. Arvind Kejriwal has even gone to the Supreme Court regarding this issue, and the verdicts have also come in his favour – and it has also happened that the central government has brought the Delhi Seva Bill and has curtailed the powers of the Chief Minister of Delhi.
If Arvind Kejriwal had kept himself politically fit, he could have avoided all such troubles. Arvind Kejriwal’s strategy of remaining the Chief Minister but not keeping any portfolio in his share has also failed. As the Chief Minister, he must have known that no important or policy decision in the government can move forward without him – if he wanted, he could have run the government even without being the Chief Minister, and if he had been politically cautious, he could have avoided going to jail.
Making a liquor policy and then changing it with immediate effect when questions were raised – if that was not a political blunder, then what was it?
The limit was crossed when Swati Maliwal could not even handle the case politically while coming out on bail for a few days – that case is becoming a new problem for Arvind Kejriwal. The charge sheet of Delhi Police is pointing towards this.
They also miss out on coalition politics
The party has already seen the result of fighting the Lok Sabha elections in Punjab separately from the Congress, yet it has announced to fight the Delhi Assembly elections alone. It is possible that the Aam Aadmi Party may have the argument that it did not get any benefit by fighting the elections together in Delhi – it has not been getting any benefit since 2014.
But it is also true that Arvind Kejriwal has been forming the government with a huge majority in Delhi. Now, in the Delhi assembly elections, he will have to fight not only the BJP but also the Congress. And if there is a fight, then votes will definitely be divided. And this fight is in such a difficult situation, when no one is able to handle the Aam Aadmi Party properly. Even after the Swati Maliwal case, Sanjay Singh is still in the field, but he does not have the same attitude as before. Politics of rhetoric is a different matter.
AAP leaders allege that Arvind Kejriwal’s weight has reduced in jail, but if weighed on the scale of politics, it seems that his political weight has also increased by 100 grams like Vinesh Phogat.
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)