L-G Slams Delhi Ministers for Refusing to Attend Meetings with Him, Writes to MHA

Delhi ministers refused to attend a meeting by Lt Governor VK Saxena to discuss their ministries' functioning after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's arrest. The L-G Secretariat criticiSed the refusal, while Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj argued that the Constitution does not grant Lt Governor power to issue directions.

New Delhi: Showing "insensitivity and lack of seriousness", Delhi ministers refused to attend a meeting called by Lt Governor VK Saxena to discuss functioning of their ministries following the arrest of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the L-G Secretariat has said in a letter to the Union home ministry.

Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on March 21 in connection with a money-laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy and is now lodged in Tihar jail here.

Delhi Health Minister and senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Saurabh Bharadwaj, however, said the Constitution does not give the Lt Governor the power to issue directions on subjects such as health and water.

In its letter to the Union home secretary, the Secretariat of the Lt Governor (L-G) said such a consultation (meeting) was necessary "so that routine works of governance are not hampered" in the backdrop of Kejriwal's detention but the ministers declined his invite on the "specious ground" that the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) was in force.

The MCC was imposed with the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections by the Election Commission on March 16. "Upon the arrest of Shri Arvind Kejriwal, Hon'ble Chief Minister of Delhi, and subsequent events, especially those related to public health infrastructure in the city, the impeding Summer Action Plan for water availability, etc playing out in the public domain, Lt Governor had decided to convene a meeting of key ministers of GNCTD dealing with the departments of water, education, health, transport, environment and forest etc," according to the letter from the secretariat.

An intimation was sent to Gopal Rai, Kailash Gahlot, Atishi and Bharadwaj for the meeting on April 2, it said. "However, all the ministers have vide e-mails declined to attend the said meeting on the specious ground that since the Model Code of Conduct is in force, such a meeting would not be appropriate at this stage," it said.

"Hon'ble Lt Governor believes that a consultation of this nature was warranted so that routine works of governance are not hampered in the backdrop of arrest and detention of the chief minister," the letter added.

It was also noted in the letter that "the rationale adduced for not attending the meeting appears vague and exhibits lack of seriousness and insensitivity to matters affecting the day-to-day lives of the citizens of Delhi".

According to Raj Niwas officials, the Lt Governor had asked for a meeting with the ministers twice, on March 29 and April 2. However, the ministers, especially Health Minister Bharadwaj, refused to meet the Lt Governor citing "lame" excuses, they added.

Reacting to the L-G Secretariat's letter, he said, "I am surprised that a person sitting on a constitutional post is writing a letter and there is no mention of any provision of the Constitution. I want to ask which provision of the Constitution empowers the L-G to issue directions on transferred subjects like health, water, etc. I write to him about the issue related to health. He says it is a transferred subject."

Bharadwaj said he had received a WhatsApp message and claimed he was not informed about the agenda of the meeting."What was that secret meeting about? When they wrote the agenda, I told them it was a transferred subject. If you want to run Delhi, contest elections. It won't work that you will run the government from the backdoor," he said.

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