Big Brother's Bearhug

The inside story of the bid to supersede Delhi's Aam Aadmi Party-led elected government.

- Mihir Srivastava

THE Supreme Court has asked Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Lieutenant-Governor (LG) Naj eeb Jung to stop playing a “blame game” and come together to fight the worst-ever chikungunya outbreak in the capital. The spat between Jung and Kejriwal, with the former asserting his authority, has nearly paralysed the functioning of the elected government. Jung’s supremacy had been established earlier, on August 4, when a division bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath of the Delhi High Court concluded that the LG is the administrative head—the real boss. Farcical it may seem, but the chief minister can exercise his authority only in case of a notable exception—to appoint special public prosecutors. A beaming Jung declared, soon after the judgement was made public, that the high court has “clarified a few issues” and the verdict is neither “a victory for him nor a defeat for CM Arvind Kejriwal”.

Three days later, all files pertaining to decisions made by the Delhi government without the approval of the L-G were summoned to Raj Nivas. Two weeks later, on August 29, a “most urgent reminder” was sent out as “some departments are yet to comply fully”. It was more of a threat to fall in line or face the music: “Responsibility of the secretary/HoD concerned will be fixed jointly and severally, in the case any such matter comes to the notice of the (L-G’s) secretariat which should have been submitted earlier.”