During the hearing of the case related to Arvind Kejriwal, a question was asked to the Enforcement Directorate in the Delhi High Court, will it arrest the Delhi Chief Minister again? This question seems to increase the concern of the Aam Aadmi Party.
This question can be asked only when the court has got some indication from the behavior and arguments of the Enforcement Directorate. However, the hearing has been postponed to a later date. Meaning, that hearing will now take place after hearing some more cases.
Delhi High Court judge Justice Neena Bansal told the Enforcement Directorate, I am confused… what do you want to do? Are you going to arrest them again?
In the Enforcement Directorate case, Arvind Kejriwal has got interim bail from the Supreme Court, but in the CBI case, he is not able to be released due to non-availability of bail. Arvind Kejriwal had also got bail from the trial court, but the ED’s appeal was stayed by the Delhi High Court. The decision had not even come when CBI arrested Arvind Kejriwal.
Arvind Kejriwal’s lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi had described the CBI’s action as an insurance arrest, and senior lawyer Vikram Chaudhary, who was defending the case in the High Court, called the arrest a case of sheer harassment.
This is just an example of Arvind Kejriwal’s legal fight in the Delhi Liquor Policy case. Earlier Arvind Kejriwal was trying to fight this battle politically. Not responding to 9 summons of ED was a part of political fight while remaining within the legal ambit. Still, no strategy worked and Arvind Kejriwal had to go to jail. It is true that Arvind Kejriwal got interim bail from the Supreme Court for a few days in the name of election campaign, but at the moment there is no ray of hope to come out.
Even during interim bail, Arvind Kejriwal was not allowed to go to the office, nor could he participate in any government work, except when his signature on a file was absolutely necessary as the Chief Minister.
It can be said that Arvind Kejriwal is running the government from jail, but how the government is running is clearly visible. Now a new problem has arisen regarding the program of 15th August in Delhi. Every year on the occasion of Independence Day, the Delhi government organizes a program at Chhatrasal Stadium, and till last year, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been hoisting the flag – but since Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is in jail, it is not possible to hoist the flag.
In such a situation, Arvind Kejriwal has written a letter to Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena. Through the letter, Arvind Kejriwal has told that Delhi Government Minister Atishi will hoist the flag in his place. Both BJP and Delhi Congress have expressed their opposition to this move of Arvind Kejriwal citing protocol.
Advantages and disadvantages of remaining Chief Minister
Arvind Kejriwal has about six months left in his tenure as the Chief Minister of Delhi. Apart from political opponents, till now no one has raised any legal or constitutional objection to Arvind Kejriwal continuing as Chief Minister. Many petitions were filed in the courts and questions were also raised but they were rejected saying that it depends on Arvind Kejriwal whether he wants to remain the Chief Minister or not.
Aam Aadmi Party had also conducted a survey among the people of Delhi regarding running the government from jail, and then it was also claimed that most of the people are of the opinion that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal should run the government from jail itself – and accordingly. Arvind Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party are talking about taking care of the sentiments of Delhiites.
According to the letter written to the LG of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal has said, ‘On August 15, Minister Atishi will hoist the flag in my place.’
After former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia was sent to jail, Arvind Kejriwal had handed over most of his responsibilities to Atishi. Even today, Atishi has the responsibility of most of the departments of Delhi Government – but he has not been made the Deputy CM.
Even after Manish Sisodia went to jail, there was no impact on Arvind Kejriwal’s government responsibilities, he continues to be the Chief Minister without portfolio as before. Obviously, this arrangement will also be a part of Arvind Kejriwal’s strategy.
The question is, what benefit is Arvind Kejriwal himself getting by remaining the Chief Minister? By remaining the Chief Minister, neither his arrest could be stopped, nor was he able to come out of jail. Till now only one or two benefits have been seen. Firstly, he got interim bail for the election campaign, and secondly, during the court hearings, an argument is given for him that he is a Chief Minister and not a habitual offender.
Now if Arvind Kejriwal had made someone else the Chief Minister in his place, there would have been some benefit. Before Arvind Kejriwal, if Hemant Soren wanted, leaders like Lalu Yadav and BS Yediyurappa could also have done this. And Arvind Kejriwal will have to admit that if not Hemant Soren, then Lalu Yadav and Yediyurappa have been more experienced than him.
If Arvind Kejriwal had made someone the Chief Minister in his place, then at least government work would have continued in Delhi. The promise of giving one thousand rupees to women would have been implemented by now, and the Aam Aadmi Party would have been benefiting from it. There are many other works which would have been ineffective had he been in jail.
Congress leaders or BJP leaders do not ask Arvind Kejriwal why he remained silent on the deaths of UPSC candidates? And the LG does not even have to write a letter authorizing anyone to hoist the flag.
And the biggest advantage would have been that Arvind Kejriwal could have taken advantage of such a system even by staying in jail till the elections. After all, during Hemant Soren’s stay in jail, Champai Soren was also working in the same way as the government schemes were already running. Rabri Devi was also running the government in Bihar, and from the political point of view, Lalu Yadav was also running the government from jail – in fact, Arvind Kejriwal misses this point of politics, and has to suffer the consequences much later. Does matter.
Kejriwal’s own moves are backfiring
Ever since Arvind Kejriwal became the Chief Minister of Delhi, there has been a specific allegation that the centrally appointed Lieutenant Governor of Delhi does not allow the people’s elected government to do any work. They keep creating obstacles in every work. The Chief Minister of Delhi does not even have the right to make appointments and transfer officers.
If this is really the case then the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi should have been caught in the liquor policy scam instead of Arvind Kejriwal – how should this issue be understood?
If we look at the entanglement of Manish Sisodia and Arvind Kejriwal in the Delhi liquor scam, it seems that the allegations being made against LG are baseless. This is like a half truth. Arvind Kejriwal has gone to the Supreme Court regarding this issue, and decisions have been given in his favor – and what has also happened is that the Central Government has limited the rights of the Chief Minister of Delhi by bringing the Delhi Service Bill.
If Arvind Kejriwal had kept himself politically sound, he could have avoided all such troubles. Arvind Kejriwal’s strategy of remaining the Chief Minister but not keeping any department in his share is also failing. As the Chief Minister, he must have known that no important or policy decision in the government can be taken forward without him – if he wanted, he could have run the government even without being the Chief Minister, and if he had been politically alert, he could have avoided going to jail. Were.
Making a liquor policy and then changing it with immediate effect when questions were raised – if that wasn’t a political blunder, then what was?
The limit reached when Swati Maliwal could not even handle the case politically while she was out on bail for a few days – that case is becoming a new problem for Arvind Kejriwal. The charge sheet of Delhi Police is indicating the same.
They fail even in coalition politics
In Punjab, we have seen the results of contesting the Lok Sabha elections separately from the Congress, yet in Delhi, we have announced to contest the Assembly elections alone. It is possible that the Aam Aadmi Party may have the argument that there is no benefit in fighting the elections together in Delhi – it has not been there since 2014.
But it is also true that Arvind Kejriwal has been forming the government in Delhi with an overwhelming majority. Now we will have to fight not only BJP but also Congress in the Delhi Assembly elections. And if there is a fight then votes will definitely be lost. And this fight is in such a difficult situation, when no one is able to handle the Aam Aadmi Party properly. Even after the Swati Maliwal case, Sanjay Singh is still in the field, but he does not seem to have the same attitude as before. Rhetorical politics is a different matter.
AAP leaders allege that Arvind Kejriwal’s weight has reduced in jail, but if weighed on the scale of politics, it seems that his political weight has also increased by 100 grams like Vinesh Phogat.