Kejriwal attacks Centre in House: ‘Budget delayed to satisfy ego’

The Delhi chief minister was speaking two hours after the home ministry cleared the Delhi Budget, ending a 24-hour-long back-and-forth exercise between it, the state government and the LG office.

New Delhi: Attempts at derailing the Delhi Budget were a direct attack on the Constitution, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said in a speech in the state assembly on Tuesday, adding that an approval sought by his government in accordance with “tradition” was turned into an exercise in “ego satisfaction” by the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Centre and the office of the lieutenant governor (LG).

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal cited the Constitution to say that the LG does not have the authority to raise objections or clear files, except in the three domains of police, public order, and land. (HT Photo)

The chief minister was speaking two hours after the Union ministry of home affairs on Tuesday cleared the Delhi Budget, ending a 24-hour-long back-and-forth exercise between the state government, the LG office, and the Union home ministry. Though the assembly had approved the presentation of the Budget on Tuesday, government officials on Monday evening said that the document was yet to be cleared by the Centre, triggering a war of words between the state government, the Centre, and the LG’s office over who was responsible for the unprecedented situation.

Kejriwal on Tuesday cited the Constitution to say that the LG does not have the authority to raise objections or clear files, except in the three domains of police, public order, and land. “LG does not have any power to raise objections, and he is bound by the aid and advice of the council of ministers on all subjects excluding three according to the 2018 Supreme Court order, and as per Article 239AA(4) of Constitution. LG cannot write anything on files. If the LG will do it, then it is an insult to the House (assembly). If LG has to run Delhi, why have the people elected MLAs,” Kejriwal said.

Arguing that his government was simply following convention while sending the Budget to the Centre for presidential approval, Kejriwal called the delay unconstitutional. “It is against the basic structure of democracy and Constitution that the state budget is being sent to the Centre (for approval). It will not sustain the scrutiny of law. It is a tradition, and we follow it. But the Centre has never raised objections in the past. However, the tradition has been flouted for the first time,” the Delhi chief minister said, adding that his government does not want any confrontation with the Centre and wants to focus only on the development of Delhi.

“In the end, we didn’t change the Budget at all. We just sent them clarifications, and they were fine with that. If this is not an exercise in ego satisfaction, then what it is?” he added.

The LG office, meanwhile, termed the CM’s charges “patently false”, and argued that the government has not responded promptly to the LG’s observations. “The CM was aware that the LG had approved the financial statement and made certain observations since 9th March, 2023, when the LG secretariat sent the file to him. However, none of the concerns raised by LG were addressed,” the LG office said.

Kejriwal, during his speech, singled out two senior officials who, according to him, caused deliberate delays in processing the files.

“Chief secretary (Naresh Kumar) and principal secretary finance (Ashish Chandra Verma) kept sitting on the file for three days. The entire country knows that these officers are controlled by the Centre and the LG. Since the officials know who controls them, they are too scared to act. The MHA asked them to keep sitting on the file for three days. On Monday, a day before the Budget at 2pm, the finance minister was informed that MHA has raised some objections (to the Budget). Action should be taken against these officers,” Kejriwal said.

Kumar and Verma did not respond to request for comment.

MHA did not comment on the allegations by the chief minister.

Kejriwal also dismissed reports that the Centre objected to Delhi’s infrastructure budget being lower than the allocation for advertisements. “They said the Budget allocation for ads was higher than the infrastructure allocation. The infrastructure budget was ₹20,000 crore and that for the ads was ₹500 crore. How is 500 more than 20,000?” the CM said, adding that “a bunch of illiterate people who can’t even read the Budget accurately” have caused the confusion.

When BJP legislators raised objections to this statement, the CM said that he did not name anyone.

During the course of his speech, Kejriwal also sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cooperation in running the government, and said that the state-Centre conflict will not help anyone . “We had the option to move the court over their objections. But, I told the minister that we do not want to fight. The minister answered all the observations. No change was made in the Budget. The Centre raised objections just to satisfy its ego. We complied but no purpose was achieved,” Kejriwal said in his speech at the House.

“I want to tell PM Modi, if you want to win Delhi, win the hearts of the people of Delhi. You have to work better than us to defeat us. We want to work together. We do not know politics. We want your cooperation Modiji,” Kejriwal said in the House.

Leader of opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, however, alleged that the Delhi government was responsible for the delay in the Budget presentation. “The Delhi government could not respond to the queries, and the finance minister is blaming his officials for it. It is not good for democracy. I think the system in Delhi has totally collapsed. The LG has the constitutional right to raise queries on the Budget. All this drama is being created to divert the attention of the people,” he said.