National

‘Obstructing elected govts for petty partisan gains…’: Kejriwal amid Centre vs AAP

A day after the Supreme Court asked the Centre the purpose of having an elected government in Delhi amid the ongoing Centre versus AAP, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said obstructing elected governments from doing their job for petty partisan gains is bad for the people, democracy and the Constitution. “Let elected govts function,” the Delhi chief minister wrote sharing a column of Hindustan Times written by Rajdeep Sardesai on the tussle between the governors and the state governments in the context of both Delhi and Tamil Nadu.

The tussle between the Lieutenant Governor and the Delhi government has been going on for years and is still continuing in the term of LG VK Saxena who assumed office in 2022. The latest flashpoint between the government and the LG is over the foreign training of the school teachers of Delhi, as Kejriwal claimed that the LG rejected the proposal of sending teachers to Finland for training.

The Directorate of Information and Publicity of the Delhi government sent a recovery notice to the Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday asking it to deposit ₹164 crore within 10 days. It said the party violated the guidelines n political advertisements issued by the Supreme Court.

Early this week, the LG wrote to Kejriwal asking him for regular meetings for conflict-free governance.

The Supreme Court’s observation, however, was on a different case regarding LG’s authorities in Delhi. “What is the purpose of having an elected government in Delhi at all if the administrative functions have to be carried out at the beck and call of the Centre,” Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said during the hearing.