With powers clipped, AAP government on backfoot

New Delhi is all decked up for the G20 leaders’ summit later this week. Colourful fountains, artistic billboards, decorated bus stands, and carefully grafted plants and flowers on the roadsides await the delegates for the marquee multilateral event.

A visitor to New Delhi may come with an impression that the city government is most efficiently being run and all the organs of the executive must be in harmony with each other. True to the adage that what’s seen may not necessarily be true, there are worrying signs that the elected government headed by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the city bureaucracy headed by the Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar are drifting away from their common mandate to serve the interests of the people of Delhi.

Three weeks ago, Union Minister for Home Affairs Amit Shah, while replying to debate in the Lok Sabha on the Delhi Services Bill, said that the legislative proposal aims better governance for the wellbeing of the people in the national capital. But the panel, which came in existence after the nod of Parliament and headed by the Chief Minister and consisting of the Chief Secretary and the Home Secretary, has become the bone of contention between the council of ministers and the city bureaucracy.

It has emerged that the only meeting the panel had has set off the political leadership and the bureaucrats on divergent paths. The sticking point that the secretary of the department of the services should send the agenda of the meeting to the minister holding the charge of services (Atishi) has made the sparring a public spectacle.

First, Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot spoke against the transport secretary, accusing him of not listening to the minister’s orders. Delhi transport officials had been on unrelenting in seizing and towing away old vehicles. In a media statement Gahlot said that he instructed the officials to pause the drive against the old vehicles; but his instructions were ignored. Finally, it was the Delhi High Court which intervened and directed that the seized vehicles be released with undertakings given by the owners, while also asking the city government to frame a policy.

Kejriwal, in the recently concluded Delhi assembly session, bemoaned that nowhere in India exists an arrangement by which the Chief Minister is part of a committee with two officials being other members. His most vocal minister, Atishi, alleged that the finance secretary was sitting over files of development projects.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s move to use the committees of the Delhi Assembly to summon officials appears to have further frayed ties between the elected representatives and the bureaucracy. Now, it’s being seen that the officials are citing rules to refuse to appear before the committees. Besides, those privy to the exchanges between the Delhi ministers and the officials say that there is a breakdown of working relations between the two organs of the executive.

The officials are resorting to the rule book to argue with the ministers that their instructions or directions could not be followed. The officials are also seen to be attending meetings called by Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena. The office of the Delhi Lieutenant Governor has been at the forefront in taking the review meetings for preparing Delhi for the G20 Leaders’ Summit on September 9-10.

The consequences of the sparring between the elected representatives and the bureaucracy are seen in the AAP government’s pet project mohalla clinics not getting due attention, and the national capital has not seen big infrastructure projects taking off.

The Delhi government has limited powers and there exists multiple authorities within the national capital region. The passage of the Delhi Services Bill appears to have emboldened the bureaucrats to put their foot down opposing AAP’s style of functioning. The AAP government may have to toil hard to avoid becoming lame duck.

(Manish Anand is a Delhi-based journalist)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH