ISSUE IN DELHI IS RIGHTS OF THE ELECTED GOVERNMENT

ISSUE IN DELHI IS RIGHTS OF THE ELECTED GOVERNMENT

The first ever model of alternative governance and politics represented by the Aam Aadmi Party has finally come into direct confrontation with the established norms in the semi-state that is Delhi and at the same time what is under test is the slogan given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of cooperative federalism. This situation cannot be viewed in the normal framework of polity as the basic issue involved is the rights of an elected government. AAP in Delhi represents more than that in view of the unprecedented mandate of 67 seats in a House of 70 that gives it the moral right to question the powers of the Lieutenant Governor.
Interestingly, Modi himself came to power on the slogan of change, whatever it meant as he never defined it in the sense the AAP had done. However, in this case, the BJP government at the centre is backing the Lt Governor for the very obvious reasons. Despite having been hit by factionalism, AAP has not lost its charisma. The BJP is fighting its battle against the alternate model through Lt Governor Najeeb Jung. The political fight is supposed to be fought at the political level.
The simmering confrontation between Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, himself a former bureaucrat and Jung got precipitated over the issue of appointment of Shakuntala Gamlin as the acting Chief Secretary. The power might be with the Lt Governor in Delhi but it is the elected government that has the peoples’ mandate and it is the elected government that is accountable and answerable to the people for all acts of omission and commission, not the Lt Governor who stays behind high walls. The relevance of the offices like Governor and Lt Governor in participatory democracy is a different subject.
The elected government has to implement its policies through bureaucracy and this model of governance is British legacy which no government worth its name tried to change. The role of the bureaucrat is as to how to put hurdles in fulfilling the aspirations of the people as the negative attitude is part of the training that flows from distrust of the people at large. It was in the nature of the British rulers not to trust the people at large except the cronies but the same model is totally unsuited to the democratic functioning and this is perhaps one reason that even basic amenities are not accessible to the people even after about 68 years of independence. What is the right of the people is treated as a favour, including by the representatives of the people in power. People have to agitate even for getting potable water.
It is Kejriwal and his party that has to go to the people after the completion of the five year term and even before that, the party has to prove to the people in the country that the alternative model is the one that can meet the aspirations of the common people. The country can’t continue to be governed by the laws which were framed by the British rulers according to their own suitability more than a hundred years back. It has to change and the change is never smooth as evident from what is going on in Delhi.
The charge that Kejriwal has leveled against Gamlin is that of working for protecting the interests of corporates in the power sector. He has been alleging large scale corruption in the power sector. Rather this sector has become money spinning sector for the rulers, especially after the entry of private players was allowed under liberalisation. States purchase power from the private sector to cover the demand-supply gap. Allowing the supplier to charge even one paisa more per unit means hundreds of crores.Kejriwal is committed to providing transparent government. He is ambitious and there is nothing wrong in aspiring for something higher. For that, he has to prove himself in Delhi despite all the road blocks in the form of by and large corrupt and degenerated bureaucracy.
One may recall that at one stage, the issue of committed bureaucracy had been on the agenda for discussions in the country. If the leader elected by the people with such a massive mandate has to deliver, he would need the right type of vehicle, in this case the bureaucrats who can respond positively to the concerns of the people-the aam aadmi.
The basic issue is not the confrontation between Kejriwal and Jung but the clash of two systems and this was bound to be there.
Modi gave the slogan of cooperative federalism but the BJP is fully backing the Lt Governor who has been allowed to continue although the new dispensation replaced most of the governors.It is the peoples’ mandate that must prevail. The present obsolete and anti-people model that is legacy of the British rulers who treated common people as their slaves must be replaced.
by Jagtar Singh

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