Govt shirking responsibility, says LG; another love letter, Kejriwal retorts

The letter came the backdrop of several probes that his office has ordered against the AAP establishment in the state, triggering sharp reactions from the top AAP leadership, which has accused the LG of acting at the behest of the BJP-led central government.

The unabated war of words between the Delhi lieutenant governor and the state government further intensified on Saturday with LG VK Saxena writing a scathing letter to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal accusing his government of “running away from constitutional duties” and a member of his party of “crossing all boundaries of propriety” even as the AAP chief termed it “another love letter” from the LG and an attempt by the Centre to disrupt the lives of citizens of Delhi.

Delhi LG VK Saxena. (HT Photo)

The letter came the backdrop of several probes that his office has ordered against the AAP establishment in the state, triggering sharp reactions from the top AAP leadership, which has accused the LG of acting at the behest of the BJP-led central government.

In a six-page, dated October 7, Saxena said, “I hope that you will accept this message of mine in the true sense as a ‘duty letter’ received from the guardian of Delhi, which you are calling ‘love letter’...” --- a direct swipe at a tweet by Kejriwal on Thursday in which he had said that even his wife has not written him as many love letters as the LG has sent him in the past six months.

In separate tweets in Hindi, Kejriwal said, “Even my wife does not scold me as much as LG sahib scolds me every day.”

“In the last six months, my wife has not written me as many love letters as LG Sahib has written to me. LG sahib, chill a bit. And also tell your super boss to chill,” the chief minister had said.

Citing 11 interventions and probes that he has ordered against the AAP government, the LG said, “Your government is running on the basis of advertisements and speeches. When I, while discharging my constitutional responsibilities, made you aware of these shortcomings and requested you to redress them, you and your colleagues not only misled the people, but also made baseless personal allegations. Take cognizance and reference of Manish Sisodia’s baseless, misleading and nonsensical statements.”

“I would like to remind you that the issues that were conveyed to you in the letter constituted the feelings of all the common citizens of Delhi and the issues were related to administration. I, or the people of Delhi, have not yet received any satisfactory reply from you on those matters.”

Chief minister Kejriwal responded to the latest letter in a tweet, “Have received yet another love letter today.” And added, in another tweet, “BJP is trying to destroy the lives of people of Delhi through LG. These people create one issue or another every day. I want to assure the people of Delhi that until their son [Kejriwal] is alive, you need not worry. I will not let anything bad happen to you.”

Last Tuesday, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia wrote to the LG and accused him of ordering “illegal and unconstitutional” probes against the Delhi government’s decisions. “Of all the investigations you have ordered so far, nothing came out in even a single one of them...Such bogus and frivolous scams serve no one. It only wastes the time of all the departments and shatters the morale of all the officers,” said Sisodia.

Responding to allegations levelled by Sisodia in a second letter on Wednesday, in which the deputy CM asked the LG as to why he had not ordered probe into the “toll tax collection scam by MCD”, the LG said that he has been completely impartial in discharging his constitutional duties.

“I have tried to highlight lapses and acted against corruption in all department including DDA, MCD and Delhi Police. I had sought detailed reports on allegations related to toll tax collection and the factual reports show that MCD has revoked the contract of the private agency for not making timely payments and legal action is being undertaken for recovery,” Saxena said.

In his letter, Saxena also listed several cases of defamation filed against AAP leaders by opposition figures,

He said that under a well planned manner, Delhi CM and his colleagues make false allegations against people, “cause damage to their public reputation” and later “shamelessly seek forgiveness”.

Sisodia on Thursday linked the “daily attacks on the AAP government” to the rising popularity of his party in Gujarat. He said the attacks show that the BJP has been rattled by the AAP’s growing popularity in Gujarat, where assembly elections are due to be held later this year.

“The mandate for AAP is growing in Gujarat every day, just as a new inquiry is set up in Delhi. People understand their [BJP’s] efforts to stop Arvind Kejriwal. No matter what they do, neither the development works in Delhi will stop, nor the AAP wave in Gujarat,” Sisodia tweeted in Hindi on Thursday.