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(Disclaimer: This article was first published on 26 April and has been republished in the light of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s recent statements about Delhi’s statehood.)
Arvind Kejriwal would make Delhi an El Dorado if the capital were to get full statehood. That was the main thrust of the Aam Aadmi Party’s election manifesto which was launched on Thursday, 25 April. The 35-page document made an array of promises — and the subtext of almost every promise was that it would come to pass only after Delhi attained full statehood, which the AAP would fight for if voters elected its candidates from all of Delhi’s seven Lok Sabha seats.
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At the press conference following its release, the chief minister — brisk and incisive as always — said that the biggest imperative of the 2019 general elections was removing the “Modi-Shah jodi” at the Centre. He went on to say that the AAP would support any other grand alliance and do whatever was necessary to keep the current dispensation out of power, as it had unleashed divisive forces that could tear India apart.
Coming back to the manifesto, AAP’s list of goodies for Delhi is a long one — provided the capital gets full statehood. These include, among others:
One does take issue with AAP’s promise to reserve 85 percent of college seats and government jobs for Delhiites, as that would significantly destroy the thriving cosmopolitan culture of the national capital, not to speak of making a mockery of the concept of merit. Even so, Kejriwal must be lauded for putting the issue of full statehood for Delhi at the front and centre of his campaign, by linking it to the provision for better education, jobs, housing, safety and security for the people of the city.
There are compelling reasons for Delhi to be declared a full state. At present, it is neither fish nor fowl — it is a special Union Territory, a quasi state as it were, which has an elected assembly, but is devoid of any authority over several critical arms of the administration. The police report to the home ministry of the central government and so does the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). This means that Delhi’s government has zero powers to tone up their functioning. And yet, any failures on their part would automatically be laid at its door.
This bipolarity creates a potentially unstable situation, one where the buck can be passed, inefficiency always has an excuse, and any genuine effort to streamline and improve the city and its administration can evaporate in the tussle between the two, especially if the parties in power at the Centre and in Delhi are political opponents.
It is a bizarre state of affairs that undermines officers’ accountability to the administration they serve. In fact, this was the reason for the bitter feud between Kejriwal and former LG Najeeb Jung in 2016.
Successive administrations in Delhi have recognised the need for Delhi to be a full-fledged state. And political parties too have made the promise repeatedly. The BJP manifestos in 1999 and 2014 promised full statehood for Delhi. So did the manifestos of both the Congress and the BJP in 2015. But when AAP passed a bill in the assembly in 2016 to make Delhi a full state, the BJP government at the Centre made no move to approve it.
Kejriwal’s message is clear: If AAP is in a position to play a role in forming a government other than the NDA at the Centre, it will do so on the condition that Delhi be given the status of a full state.
(Shuma Raha is a journalist and author based in Delhi. She can be reached at @ShumaRaha. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)
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Published: 26 Apr 2019,02:11 PM IST