AAP vs Delhi bureaucrats: What each side says happened at midnight meeting
Bureaucrats claim Delhi chief secretary Anshu Prakash was assaulted by two AAP MLAs at a meeting on Monday night while the AAP says the allegations are false and are another attempt to create obstacles in its work.
In another episode of run-ins between the Aam Aadmi Party government and its bureaucracy, Delhi’s chief secretary, Anshu Prakash, was allegedly assaulted at chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s house at Flagstaff Road in north Delhi late on Monday night.
A barrage of allegations and denials flew on Tuesday.
Though Prakash has not yet spoken about the alleged assault that happened during a meeting with AAP MLAs, his bureaucrats rushed to L-G Anil Baijal in the morning to lodge their protest and demand police action against the assaulter who has not been named yet.
AAP called the allegations bizarre and baseless.
Here’s what happened in the meeting, according to bureaucrats and AAP leaders.
Here’s what bureaucrats Say:
* The midnight meeting was only about advertisements and not ration cards
* Earlier, the chief minister Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia had asked Jayadev Sarangi, DIP secretary, to send out advertisements in TV, radio, etc, regarding achievements of the AAP government. The first line of this advertisement had chief minister Arvind Kejriwal saying: “Humne teen saal mein corruption kam kar diya.”
Sarangi and DIP department said they could not go ahead with the advertisement as there was no data or certification to authenticate the claim. DTTDC secretary Shurbir Singh was also asked to do the same. However, Singh said DTTDC’s job was only to create the ads. Publishing/broadcast on media was the task of DIP. After this, Singh went on leave for two to three days.
* Late on Monday evening, advisor to chief minister, V K Jain called Prakash to the CM’s residence at midnight. He was not informed about the agenda of the meeting
* The issue of ads was discussed in the meeting during which Prakash was “hit on the head” allegedly by MLAs Prakash Jarwal and Amanatullah Khan. His spectacles fall in this tussle
* Anshu Prakash left the CM’s residence and went to L-G’s house to complain
Here’s what AAP leaders say:
* About 2.5 lakh families were deprived of rations last month due to faulty implementation of Aadhaar, putting MLAs under tremendous pressure from public
* There was a meeting of MLAs at the CM’s residence during which the CS refused to answer questions, saying he was not answerable to MLAs and the CM, and that he was answerable only to the L-G. He allegedly used “bad language” against some MLAs
* He left without answering any questions even as some MLAs went after him to bring him back
* The meeting and the argument was not about TV ads. The entire discussion was on how a large number of families are not getting ration