In a fiery speech decrying the present status of Delhi’s residents as “second class citizens” empowered only with “half” the democratic rights enjoyed by their counterparts elsewhere in the country, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, on Monday, reiterated the demand for statehood for the Capital in the Delhi Assembly.
Followed shortly by the passing of a resolution demanding the status of a full State for the city by the Assembly, and in the wake of his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP-led Centre renewed just hours earlier, Mr. Kejriwal asserted that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was “willing to campaign for the BJP” in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls if the demand was granted in the interests of the larger good of the citizens of the Capital.
“Delhi’s misfortune has been that it has always been a city ruled by Kings and their representatives instead of the people who reside in it...the people of Delhi have half the rights that other Indian citizens have — they have the right to choose who rules at the Centre but no right to choose who governs their city,” Mr. Kejriwal argued.
“The story has been the same since 1556...the whole country got freedom from British rule in 1947 when the will of the King [the British Crown] and its Viceroy was replaced by the will of the people; but that has not been the case in Delhi which has the BJP’s Viceroy, the Lieutenant Governor, who is harassing and financially bleeding its residents for the BJP,” he alleged.
Statehood, he argued, would help the Delhi government to ensure “a house for every citizen, admission in Delhi University colleges for students scoring even 70% marks” and better primary health care with the help of the Mohalla Clinic model among other incentives.
Need to replace ‘LG-Raj’
Demanding “freedom of Delhi” from the “rule of the LG”, Mr. Kejriwal said the time had come for the people of Delhi to “fight for their freedom” and implement the “people’s rule” in Delhi by “throwing away” either the “LG’s rule” or “the rule of the BJP”.
It was in 1992, he argued, that the Centre had instituted elections in Delhi similar to the British having done so in 1935, despite which, however, the power to govern continued to remain with the “viceroys” especially in terms of finances.
“Swaraj mera janam sidh adikar hai [Swaraj is my birthright]...we will implement swaraj in Delhi as the L-G is only accountable to the Prime Minister, and not the people of Delhi...The Centre played a bad joke with Delhi in the year 1992 and it is now time to change [things],” he said adding that if the “L-G’s rule” was not thrown out, “BJP rule” would be thrown out by the people of Delhi.
Opposition evicted
Prior to Mr. Kejriwal’s address in the Assembly, BJP MLAs were marshalled out of the Assembly as they trooped into the Well of the House demanding a discussion on the “water crises” in addition to the Jan Lokpal Bill. Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta and his colleagues Manjinder Singh Sirsa and Jagdish Pradhan entered the Well after their adjournment motion on the water crises was declined, as the House’s proceedings of the special session concluded.