MAKING WHOLE WITH CHARGE OF HALF A STATE

The Delhi government has always had to contend with the limited power it's given. A new book gives details of its governance model in health and education

- K M CHANDRASEKHAR

THE governance of Delhi has always intrigued me. When I was Union cabinet secretary in Delhi, the untiring Sheila Dikshit was the chief minister. I always wondered how Delhi CMs worked with lieutenant governors breathing down their necks. Dikshit was, in a sense, lucky that the Congress also ran the central government.

However, the Congress is not a cohesive party; there are groups and subgroups for and against elected leaders in the states, led by party henchmen who spend their time carrying tales to the mighty high command. Yet, she and I worked well together, particularly in organising the Commonwealth Games, which would probably never have taken off but for her steely determination and never-say-die spirit. I felt then, and I think now, that Delhi must have a full government run by legislators elected by the people in complete control over the bureaucracy.

Arvind Kejriwal had more problems. He and his Aam Aadmi Party rode to power on the crest of a popular wave. This wave had its genesis in the dying days of the Manmohan Singh government, when rumours of unbridled corruption were set afloat that the government did not know how to defend, and went into a shell that brought governance to a standstill.

Jasmine Shah's first book, The Delhi Model, tells the story of how the AAP pulled off an incredible coup in the nation's capital, the change of direction it effected in several key areas of concern to the commoner, how it struggled against lieutenant governors and the Centre, and yet won two elections with huge majorities.