Delhi Ordinance Bill passed in Parliament, Arvind Kejriwal responds

The bill effectively gives the control of bureaucrats in Delhi to the Centre and neutralizes the recent Supreme Court judgment which gave the control of services to the elected government of Delhi. The house engaged in an intense debate over the bill with AAP accusing the Centre of usurping the power of the Delhi government as it can’t win people’s mandate, while BJP alleged that the AAP government was using officers to cover its scams.

Heated debate over Delhi Ordinance Bill

AAP Rajya Sabha member Raghav Chadha invoked veteran BJP leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani who vouched for a full-fledged state status for Delhi. “Vajpayee and Deputy PM Advani brought a bill to give Delhi the status of state. The BJP National Executive decided to give statehood to Delhi. The BJP has been promising people that they would make Delhi a state,” Raghav Chadha was quoted by news platform NDTV.

Raghav Chadha even accused the Centre of insulting the apex court and asked what was the crisis that they had to go against the Supreme Court.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah countered Raghav Chadha and said the Centre brought Delhi ordinance as Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Delhi government doesn’t adhere to the rules. Amit Shah added that after the Supreme Court judgment, the AAP transferred officers to the vigilance department which is probing various scams.

“Why was the vigilance department only targeted and not the transport department, Jal board, the road and building department, or the social welfare department? This is because the vigilance department has the files of the excise policy cases and liquor scam,” Amit Shah said.

Updated: 07 Aug 2023, 10:32 PM IST