Offering support to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, his Delhi counterpart and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said he would table a resolution in the Delhi Assembly urging the Union government to fix a time limit for Governors and Lieutenant-Governors to carry out their constitutional duties.
Earlier this week, Mr. Stalin urged Chief Ministers of States ruled by parties other than the BJP to pass resolutions, similar to the one passed in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, in their State Assemblies urging the “Union government and the President to fix a time limit for Governors to approve the Bills passed by the Legislatures”.
“It is a foregone conclusion that democracy in India is suffering from blows every single day. Every tenet of our glorious Constitution stands compromised — be it liberty, equality, secularism, or fraternity. It is also beyond doubt that our federal structure, which enfranchised people in the most remote corners, is in grave danger from forces that seek to illegitimately centralise all power,” Mr. Kejriwal wrote to Mr. Stalin.
He said the fact that the Governors and the Lieutenant-Governors of non-BJP ruled States and Union Territories were indefinitely holding Bills passed by the Legislative Assemblies was not only a violation of the constitutional scheme, but also a disrespect for the people’s mandate which is supreme in any democracy.
The Chief Minister claimed that the situation the AAP was facing in Delhi was “exacerbated” by the fact that the L-G regularly “meddled” with the democratic mandate of Delhi’s Legislature, “blocked” the presentation of Delhi’s budget and was going even further to bring day-to-day executive functioning of the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) to a standstill under the guise of the unconstitutional 2021 amendment to the GNCTD Act.
“The actions of the Lt. Governor is hindering the functioning in every area where our government seeks to make giant strides be it healthcare, education, water, power, industries, finance or infrastructure,” he said.
“The interface of State governments and their Governors/Lt. Governors has effectively become a battlefront where a silent war is being waged by the Union government. Governors/Lt. Governors are wilfully undermining democratically elected State governments, and obstructing administration as per their whims and fancies,” Mr. Kejriwal said.
A session of the Delhi Assembly has been called on Monday, during which the matter is likely to be taken up.
Published - April 15, 2023 10:31 pm IST
