Raghav Chadha at the press conference. (Express Photo by Prem Nath Pandey)
A day after 10 advisors of the AAP government were sacked following a “clarification” from the MHA that deemed their posts “void”, AAP struck out at the BJP-led Centre asking why the appointments were cancelled after years of existing, while adding that two posts had been approved by the office of the Delhi L-G.
Speaking at a press conference, AAP leader Raghav Chadha reiterated that he had worked with the Delhi government for a period of two-and-a-half months, drawing a salary of Re 1 per month, and said that he was “returning the money” to the Centre.
“AAP had formed the Delhi government in February 2015 and in order to fulfill the promises it made to the people of Delhi, certain experts were hired by the government. The idea was to ensure that the work gets executed as quickly as possible,” he said.
On March 17, 2015, the L-G had approved the appointments of Amardeep Tiwari (media advisor to law minister) and Arunoday Prakash (media advisor to the Deputy CM).
He added, “That list had my name as well as Atishi Marlena’s. It is very strange that after almost three years, the Centre has cancelled these appointments. The way BJP makes appointments, it doesn’t look at a person’s abilities at all. For experts and educationists like Marlena, the only sin that they committed was the fact that she did a double Masters from Oxford and had a spectacular career in working to make the schools of Delhi better. The BJP is attempting to repeatedly take revenge for their loss in Delhi.”
While stating that he had sent a letter to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and returned the salary he took, Chadha said, “While we cannot change what is in the past, please accept enclosed a Demand Draft of Rs 2.50 in favour of Ministry of Home Affairs that I earned in my capacity as advisor, as a token of my remorse.”