‘He has no valid argument’: Kejriwal responds to Amit Shah's attack on Delhi ordinance bill

The opposition I.N.D.I.A bloc will not let the govt ‘enslave' the people of Delhi by passing the bill, the Delhi chief minister vowed.

Updated on: Aug 3, 2023, 19:09:57 IST

By HT News Desk, New Delhi

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Union home minister Amit Shah could not make a ‘single valid argument’ to support the Delhi ordinance bill, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Thursday, responding to the former's Lok Sabha speech, made earlier in the day.

Also Read | ‘Just to hide bungalow's truth': Shah attacks AAP on Delhi ordinance

“Today, I heard Amit Shah ji''s Lok Sabha speech on the bill that snatches away the rights of the people of Delhi. He does not have a single valid argument to support the bill. He is just talking nonsense; even he knows what he is doing is wrong,” Kejriwal wrote in Hindi on X (formerly Twitter).

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor added: “This bill will enslave the people of Delhi; it will make them helpless. INDIA will never let this happen.”

I.N.D.I.A (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) is a bloc of 26 opposition parties, including the AAP; the parties have come together to challenge the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, when both the BJP and prime minister Narendra Modi will seek a third straight term at the Centre.

Also Read | ‘Should see statements of own party leaders’: AAP's Raghav Chadha to Amit Shah on Delhi ordinance

The I.N.D.I.A bloc has dubbed the Delhi ordinance legislation as an ‘attack’ on the country's federal structure.

What is the Delhi ordinance bill?

Through this, the Union government aims to give back to itself the authority to make bureaucratic transfers in the national capital, which is also a Union territory (UT). As Delhi is a UT, the lieutenant governor (LG), a representative of the Centre, is the constitutional head, ahead of the elected chief minister.

The AAP, which has governed Delhi since Dec 2013, and the BJP, in power at the Centre since May 2014, have repeatedly butted heads on the issue. On May 11, a Constitution bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, in a unanimous 5-0 judgment, ruled that the central government can only control land, law and order, and police in the UT.

On May 19, however, President Droupadi Murmu promulgated an ordinance to negate the SC ruling. It is this ordinance that the bill will succeed.

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