‘Kejriwal will quit I.N.D.I.A once Delhi services bill passed’: Amit Shah | Top quotes

The home minister added that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was “born to oppose the Congress and it will continue to do so.

Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday took a dig at the Congress while replying to the debate in the Rajya Sabha on the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, saying Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal will “quit the I.N.D.I.A bloc once the bill is passed”. (FOLLOW LIVE UPDATES)

Union Home Minister Amit Shah at the proceedings of Rajya Sabha during the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament, in New Delhi on Monday. (ANI )

The home minister targeted Congress over joining hands with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in opposing the Ordinance bill saying, “The Congress was opposing the bill which was in consonance with the law it had enacted.”

“…If you have a conscience, you will support the bill but you want to save the alliance," he added.

Amit Shah also slammed AAP, saying that the Kejriwal-led party was “born to oppose the Congress and it will continue to do so.”

Amit Shah's top quotes from his reply in Rajya Sabha on the Delhi Services Bill

1. The objective of the bill was only and only to provide efficient, corruption-free governance and popular government.
2. Delhi is a Union Territory with an assembly with limited powers. In the future, whoever fights elections in Delhi need to understand this character.
3. Delhi services bill brought as AAP govt does not adhere to rules. AAP govt doesn't convene Delhi cabinet meetings regularly, held only 6 in 2022, including 3 on budget, and only 2 in 2023 so far.
4. We have not brought the bill to usurp power. This is to stop the encroachment of the Delhi government on the Centre's powers.
5. After the SC ruling, the AAP govt ordered immediate transfers in the vigilance dept as it was probing scams, including in the CM house renovation.
6. They (opposition parties) say we get directions from Nagpur. At least, Nagpur is part of India, unlike Russia and China from where they get instructions.
7. Since the Supreme Court has also accepted that the Parliament has the right to pass a law on any subject of Delhi. I want to ask whether Services do not fall in the category of subjects.
8. We have been accused of issuing the ordinance when Supreme Court was on vacation. They don't know that there is also a vacation bench.
9. They are foisting a false chronology to hide the chronology of the acts they committed to get rid of the files of spending 6 times more than the officially allocated amount on Sheesh Mahal.
10. They (opposition parties) are together because they know that they cannot achieve anything electorally as individual parties. But they have united just to show numbers. But even then Modi Ji will win the election in 2024.

What is the Delhi services bill?

In May, the Centre passed an ordinance in Delhi that created an authority - independent of the elected Delhi government - for the transfer and posting of senior civil service officers in the national capital. This came shortly after the Supreme Court held that the AAP government should be allowed legislative and executive control of administrative services in the national capital, with the exception of those related to land, law and public order, and police.

The move was strongly opposed by the AAP, and was followed by several protests from the opposition parties. Kejriwal also put in efforts to bring all the opposition parties together against the ordinance.