Sparking a fresh row, lieutenant-governor Najeeb Jung said on Tuesday he was not averse to mulling over scrapping the Delhi Assembly if such a proposal was brought before him.
Sparking a fresh row, lieutenant-governor Najeeb Jung said on Tuesday he was not averse to mulling over scrapping the Delhi Assembly if such a proposal was brought before him. This evoked a strong reaction from Delhi home minister Satyendar Jain who said the lieutenant-governor was speaking the language of “British viceroys and (former British Prime Minister) Winston Churchill.”
Mr Jung, who openly attacked the AAP government after last week’s Delhi high court order ruling that the lieutenant-governor was the city’s administrative head, also said an apology was due from chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “calling him names.”
When asked during an interview whether he is open to the idea of doing away with the Delhi Assembly, Mr Jung said, “As a thinking human being, as a citizen of Delhi, why would I be not open to giving thought to anything that involves Delhi. Of course, I am not unwilling to think of anything. We are all human beings and all kinds of thoughts come to us. So, if somebody were to ask me in writing that will you give an opinion, then of course, I would think about it. I am not a robot that I don’t think.”
To the question about Mr Kejriwal’s use of strong words to attack Mr Modi in the past, Mr Jung said in a democracy one can criticise the Prime Minister’s policies, “but you cannot call names.”
Mr Jain, who is a close confidante of Mr Kejriwal, said the lieutenant-governor is speaking the language of Winston Churchill who as the British Prime Minister had strongly opposed granting Independence to India. Mr Jain, whose department has had confrontations with the lieutenant-governor over a range of issues, said Mr Jung doesn’t have “faith” in democracy and that he has been using the language of former British viceroys and Churchill.
The minister also criticised Mr Jung’s directive on Monday to the heads of all departments to “review” orders and “identify” files for which his approval was required, but not taken by the AAP government, saying he cannot directly communicate with the bureaucrats.
The statement also evoked a strong reaction from the AAP, which alleged Delhi was being used by the Centre as a “testing” ground for possibly imposing Emergency in the country.
The bitter war of words between the AAP government and L-G continued days after the Delhi high court ruled that the national capital is a Union Territory despite having an elected government.
