House nod for Delhi bill after fierce debate in Rajya Sabha
The Rajya Sabha has passed the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, with 131 votes in favor and 102 against.
The Rajya Sabha cleared the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, with 131 votes in support and 102 against, dealing a blow to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government by cementing the Union government’s control over the Capital’s bureaucracy.
The bill was cleared by a division of votes a little after 10pm, following an eight-hour debate that was marked by noisy protests and acerbic political swipes between the treasury and the opposition benches.
Union home minister Amit Shah who piloted the bill, said the Opposition’s claims that the bill seeks to wrest control were unsubstantiated, as was the assertion that similar moves will be made in other Opposition-ruled states as well. “No lawmaker will change their mind after hearing that such things will happen in other states. Such changes can happen only in Union territory and not in any state. We need to change the mindset that one is fighting elections of a UT but seeking powers of a state,” he said in his reply to a fiery discussion on the issue in the Upper House.
The Opposition bloc that put up spirited fight against the bill sought a division of votes, but a technical glitch forced the voting to take place through paper slips. Jharkhand Mukti Morcha Rajya Sabha member Shibu Soren, who has been unwell, and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, 90, attended the House in a wheelchair as part of opposition’s measures to squeeze in every possible vote.
In a televised address, minutes after the Rajya Sabha session ended, Kejriwal accused said it was a “black day” for INDIA’s democracy, and accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in particular Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union home minister, of “stabbing the people of Delhi in the back”.
“They realised that it was difficult to defeat AAP in Delhi, thus tried to grab power through the back door,” he said.
During his speech, Shah slammed the AAP, which had rallied opposition parties, including the Congress, together for weeks now. “There have been various parties in power over the years, and the issues of transfer and posting that are mentioned here, all these are followed in practice. No CMs got into a power struggle with the centre, decisions were taken and no CMs had a problem... They didn’t want to grab power.”
AAP Rajya Sabha member Raghav Chadha, during the debate, called the bill a “political fraud” that it is against the spirit of federalism. He also cited the BJP’s election manifestos demanding statehood for Delhi. “This bill is an insult not only to democracy and the Constitution but also to (BJP leaders) Lal Krishna Advani, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Madan Lal Khurana, Sushma Swaraj and their 40 years of struggle,” Chadha said.
Chadha later said the AAP will challenge the law in court.
Hitting out at the Congress, which has opposed the Bill, Shah said the party has joined hands with the AAP, which was borne out of opposition to the grand old party. “The bill has not been brought to impose Emergency or take away the rights of people. It has been brought to fight for the rights of the people,” he said, slamming the Congress for pointing out that the bill was “undemocratic.”
“The Congress has no right to speak on democracy...we have not brought the bill to restore the membership of a former PM. Three lakh plus political leaders were jailed during Emergency, there was censorship of the newspapers,” he said.
Earlier, Congress lawmaker Abhishek Singhvi, who represented the Delhi government in the Supreme Court, accused the government of seeking to create “an authority where the chief minister is in a minority, to empower two bureaucrats to overrule an elected chief minister and make the LG, a constitutional figurehead except in three areas, into a ‘Super CM’ and give powers to the LG to appoint heads of large number of regulatory agencies”.
Shah, in his attack on AAP, said officers of the vigilance department were arbitrarily transferred as files related to the alleged liquor scam were being probed. “So much haste was shown concerning the vigilance department by Delhi government because it had files related to ‘excise policy scam’ and ‘sheesh-mahal’,” he said, purportedly referring to the CM’s residence, which has been in controversy for undergoing an expensive renovation.
“Arvind Kejriwal will do a volte face after the bill is passed.” Shah said amid thumping from the government side as he targeted the larger opposition alliance under the banner INDIA.
Pointing to the Opposition camp’s internal rivalries, he pointed to arch-rivals Trinamol Congress and the Communist parties, and the Janata Dal (United) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) being together. “They (TMC) broke away with the Congress because Narasimha Rao tied up with the communists... JDU’s Lallan Singh used to say he won’t ever go with RJD, why did they come together?,” he said amid uproar from the opposition.
The outcome was expected even though the Bharatiya Janata Party does not have a majority of its own or as part of the National Democratic Alliance. What tilted the scales was the declarations of Telugu Desam Party, YSR Congress party (YSRCP) and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) that they would back the government on the legislation.
In a house with 237 members, their declarations had meant that the government was assured of at least 124 votes.
Speaking to media persons after the vote, Bharatiya Rashtra Samiti leader Keshava Rao pinned the blame on the BJD and the YSRCP for the Opposition’s loss. The BRS, which has seven lawmakers, had issued a whip to vote against the passage of the bill, which was cleared by the Lok Sabha last week.
“There were three members who did not vote, Kapil Sibal was absent, the deputy chairperson did not vote and one more member from the JD(U) was indisposed. And had the YSRCP and the BJD not voted with the government, the opposition would have prevailed,” said DMK leader T Siva.
The debate was marked by strong contentions split across political lines, with both sides claiming a deep constitutional implication of the outcome. “I appeal to the House not to proceed with this bill because this bill (Delhi services bill) is unconstitutional. Law ministry knows it is unconstitutional. This government will face a spectacular failure when this bill is taken up,” said Congress MP Chidambaram.
Former chief justice Ranjan Gogoi, nominated to the Upper House by the Modi government, said: : “...I am concerned as a nominated member not belonging to any political party, I am only concerned with whether the bill is constitutionally valid, and there I have made a speech saying that it is constitutionally valid… I didn’t speak on the necessity (of the bill), I spoke on legality...”
The National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 represents perhaps the most seismic clash between the Union government and the AAP.
The spat between the elected government of Delhi and the lieutenant governor, who reports to the Union home ministry, over control of the bureaucracy began in 2015 and reached the Supreme Court the next year. In 2018, the top court said that land, police and public order were under the Centre and the rest of the departments under the elected Delhi government. But the tussle continued, and in May this year, the top court affirmed its earlier verdict.
Eight days later, the Union government brought the 2023 Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) Ordinance that effectively overrode the Supreme Court’s verdict and gave powers over the bureaucracy to the Centre and the LG. Challenges to the ordinance are pending before the top court, which has sent them to a Constitution bench.