Delhi 2023: Year of unrelenting tussle between AAP dispensation, L-G
Lt Governor and the bureaucracy and a short-lived promise of authority after a Supreme Court verdict on control over Services-related matters marked an action-packed 2023 for Delhi's AAP government. Hardly a week after the Supreme Court on May 11 granted Delhi's elected AAP dispensation executive control over Services-related matters, including appointments and transfers of bureaucrats, the BJP-led Centre brought legislation to again tilt the balance in favour of the Lt Governor.
As the weeks and months passed, the war of words between the AAP government and the Raj Niwas and bureaucrats got only sharper and noisier with even Lt Governor VK Saxena, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar getting involved.
In January, the two sides came face to face as Kejriwal marched from the Vidhan Sabha to the Raj Niwas with his ministers and MLAs to protest against alleged hurdles created in sending government school teachers to Finland for a training exercise.
Retorting that «L-G is not our headmaster», Kejriwal accused Saxena of interfering in the government's functioning and bypassing it during the decision-making process.
As the year draws to a close, the rift has only widened with Saxena recommending a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the alleged procurement and supply of «non-standard» drugs in Delhi government hospitals.
Saxena last year had recommended a CBI probe into the alleged excise policy scam.
The matter is now being probed by both the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which recently summoned Kejriwal for questioning as part of its investigations in a related money laundering matter.
