Amit Shah model vs Kejriwal model: Tension building up between AAP-led Delhi and Centre

After initial bonhomie, tension is building up between the AAP-led Delhi government and the BJP-led Centre in the fight against Covid-19 pandemic as struggle to win the perception war has started.

Aware of the growing perception that the AAP government has not fared well in fighting Covid-19 against an aggressive Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the field, AAP is slowly returning to the confrontation mode, saying there is an "Amit Shah model and Arvind Kejriwal model" in the fight against the pandemic in the capital.

After failing to convince Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal earlier on issues like testing strategy and reserving hospital beds only for Delhi residents, AAP has managed to reverse his decision bringing in five-day mandatory institutional quarantine for all Covid-19 patients, which practically ended home isolation, but has not won fully.

The bone of contention remains as Baijal has directed that all patients should be tested at a quarantine centre but AAP wants to revert to the previous mechanism where medical teams would visit Covid-19 patients to determine whether they can remain in home isolation or should be shifted to institutional quarantine, saying the "Shah model" would inconvenience people.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has not jumped into the issue but fielded Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who shot off two letters to Baijal and one to Shah, besides holding two digital addresses in the past two days.

Sisodia on Wednesday said it was not a fight between two models. "It is already a difficult time and we should adopt a model that would not add to the woes of the people of Delhi. Let us not follow a model that further strains the overburdened healthcare system and adds to the woes of the people," he said.

On his part, Kejriwal on Tuesday sought to win a point by inviting Shah to inspect a 10,000-bedded Covid-19 Care Centre at Radha Soami Satsang Beas campus in south Delhi's Chhattarpur and requested for deployment of doctors and nurses from ITBP and Army at the Centre.

Shah appeared to take the fight back to AAP camp by tagging a news report about the invite and tweeted to "dear Kejriwal-ji” that it was already decided in “our meeting” on Sunday that ITBP would be operating the centre. Besides, he also announced that a 1,000-bedded hospital built by DRDO and Tata Trust will be operational in next ten days, besides deploying armed forces personnel at isolation coaches.

Whenever a confrontation was brewing in the past few days, Kejriwal had doused the fire announcing cooperation with the Centre so far. But the belligerent stand on home isolation and invite to Shah showed that AAP has realised that it would be ceding ground to BJP, which it had decimated in the Assembly elections in February, if left unchallenged.

As the situation worsened in the capital, the Centre "actively" stepped in to the Delhi scene on June 14 with Shah chairing a meeting with Baijal and Kejriwal, followed by another meeting the same evening with Mayors. He announced a series of measures, including ramping up tests by three-fold in six days, house-to-house survey in containment zones and fixing rates for treatment and testing among others. Many of the measures have been implemented as of now.

Kejriwal then showed no signs of unease, at least in public, and made the right noises of "working together with the Centre" and "not the issue to play politics" in fighting Covid-19.

The run up to the June 14 meeting had its share of tension. The first signs of Centre's intent not to remain a spectator came as the Kejriwal government announced reserving hospital beds for only Delhi residents. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) prompted the LG to reverse it.

The Centre also did not agree with the Delhi government's assessment that there was community spread of the virus in the capital. Days before, the LG had also disallowed a move by the state government to restrict testing of Covid-19 samples.

AAP was not happy with it and Sisodia, who attended the meeting in place of Kejriwal, who was in self isolation after developing Covid-19 symptoms, made the party's discontent clear in a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on June 9.

Kejriwal returned to action the very next day after testing negative for virus infection only to announce that he would cooperate with orders issued by the "Centre and the LG", thus, scotching speculation about intensifying confrontation.

Shah had by then followed up by holding an all-party meeting of Delhi leaders and a "surprise" visit to Delhi government-run Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital, which was streamed live on his YouTube channel.

The BJP-led government further cornered AAP when the former refused to invite it to an all-party meeting on June 19 called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on India-China border situation, prompting it to field its Rajya Sabha leader Sanjay Singh to target the Centre for not inviting a "three-time elected Chief Minister" from the meeting.

However, Kejriwal once again appeared to blow the air of confrontation by asking not to politicise the fight against China on the borders and Covid-19.

Interestingly, he also joined four non-Congress Chief Ministers against "politicisation" of India-China border row after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came under attack for his controversial remarks that none had intruded into Indian territory.