By
Kalyani Shankar
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal
is back at his old game of street- level confrontation with the Union
Government as part of his political strategy. This time he is going on an
indefinite fast from March 1 to get full statehood for Delhi. Can he achieve
his objective? It looks difficult because no party at the Centre wants to give
full statehood to Delhi. In the last two decades both the BJP and the Congress
parties have promised statehood but when they came to power at the Centre, the
issue took a backseat. Delhi being a special state, land and law and order come
under the Union Home ministry. The chief minister wants them under his
government’s control but the Centre would never part with these powers, as there
are several hiccups, financial and political.
Kejriwal, like his counterpart West
Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, is best at confrontational politics.
There has been a constant tussle between him and the Centre since the AAP
government came to power in 2015. Earlier in his first term, he went on dharna
and even held cabinet meetings near Rail Bhavan on the pavement.
Last week Kejriwal declared in the
Assembly “From 1st March I will begin a hunger strike. I am going to fast till
we get statehood. I am ready to face death.” The demand was one of the Aam
Admi Party’s promises in the run-up to the 2015 Assembly polls. “Ab aar ya paar
ki ladai hai (this is going to be a decisive battle),” the Chief Minister said,
announcing his decision. Prior to that Kejriwal had declared in public meetings
that if the AAP got seven out of seven Delhi Lok Sabha seats, his party would
ensure that the Delhi got the statehood within two years. Kejriwal is also
prodding the people of Delhi to come to the streets to participate in the
agitation for statehood.
The immediate provocation for this
decision is the Supreme Court verdict last week, which held that the Centre and
not the Delhi government had the power to order investigations against corrupt
officers in the capital. It also left the decision to a higher bench as to who
should control the officers. Prior to that, In July, a five-judge Constitution
bench ruled that Delhi cannot be accorded the status of a state but said the
Lieutenant-Governor has no “independent decision-making power” and
must act on the “aid and advice” of the elected government. Kejriwal
is not happy with these judicial pronouncements.
Kejriwal is building up this issue, as
part of his campaign for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and divert attention from
his failures. He claimed statehood would provide two lakh jobs in the Delhi
government, houses for all citizens of the state, regularization of contractual
government employees and new schools and universities.
Though Delhi is going for polls in
2020, Kejriwal’s compulsion is to raise the issue now because of the upcoming
parliamentary polls. AAP has performed well on health, education, water,
electricity and unauthorised colonies’ fronts and is quite sure of the support
of the lower middle class and poorer sections, but Kejriwal is not sure about
prospects in the Lok Sabha polls. What better way than to sit in dharna on
behalf of the people of people. This way he can impress on the people that he
is the only one who is taking care of their interests.
Secondly, Kejriwal may need a face
saving formula at some point of time later if the fast continues. He knows he
can expect the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and Andhra Pradesh
chief minister Chandrababu Naidu with whom he is on excellent terms to come to
Delhi and persuade him to end the indefinite fast. Are they not together in the
proposed mahagathbandhan? He has come much closer to them and this is part of
taking on the Centre and they are equally interested in embarrassing the Modi
government.
Kejriwal is not the only one fighting
the Centre as Puducherry Chief Minister V.
Narayanasamy too has been locked in a turf war with Lt Governor Kiran
Bedi over the latter’s negative attitude towards various proposals of his
government. He had been sitting in dharna since February 13 outside the Raj
Bhavan demanding that the Lt Governor approve his cabinet’s proposals.
Kejriwal should realise that
confrontational politics would not get him anywhere. The country is tense after
the Pulwama terror attack and he has chosen this time to press for his demands
too. What happens if a limited war with Pakistan starts before that? What is
important is governance and this is where he is weak though he puts the blame on
the Centre for every one of his failures. Pressing for Delhi statehood is
something, which cannot happen in a day, and he should realize the difficulties
on the road to it. As chief minister, his mantra should be governance first. (IPA Service)
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