Crushing Delhi won't help India
After two Delhi High Court judgements which did not favour the Delhi government, it appears that the judiciary believes that a Union Territory is a bath mat for the lieutenant governor, in this case Mr Najeeb Jung, known neither for any legal acumen, nor respect for an overwhelmingly majority elected government.
In his cocky style, it is clear that he has clear disrespect and disregard for the government he is supposed to help steer, and without due regard for what the chief minister and his cabinet recommend. Not only that, the LG has reportedly stated that correspondence to him from the Delhi CM is dispatched immediately to the waste paper basket.
The Delhi bureaucrats are removed or transferred at will by the LG, who is now having his staff scour through some 400 files so as to get material to attack the CM and the Delhi government with.
After all the debate and criticism of the LG as a latter day Shah Alam, it is strikingly evident that he has the complete backing of the prime minister, his Union cabinet and minions. The media is surprisingly quiet, as are most of the secular parties, who seem to be enjoying the show. This is completely disgraceful.
Surely, the Left and secular parties should respect political rights and duties, and not stand by as a Delhi government elected by a landslide is taken to the cleaners by unconstitutional means. This is a sad day for Indian democracy, and so far also a debacle for the recent judicial decrees in the evaluation of the rights of Union Territories and their governments.
Where does the Constitution state even in Article 239AA that the UT governments will be mere messenger boys for an arrogant retired bureaucrat? Ours is supposed to be a federal system, though the term is not in the Constitution, but is cited in several judicial verdicts including in the higher judiciary.
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| The Delhi bureaucrats are removed or transferred at will by the LG Najeeb Jung (right), who is now having his staff scour through some 400 files so as to get material to attack the CM ARvind Kejriwal and his government with. [Photo: Google] |
Which federal system anywhere permits an unelected LG to exercise total quasi-judicial and executive powers over a CM and his 67/70 member crushing majority in the Delhi Assembly?
This is not the federalism of the US, Canada or Switzerland. But have the judiciary and the Union executive learned relevant lessons from these experiences? If not, shouldn't these bodies learn from these experiences?
After all, the courts have repeatedly referred to relevant experiences and judicial pronouncements in other polities before.
It is true that India's federalism is relatively weak, but that doesn't mean that it is non-existent. And given the strains in the Indian polity from north to south, over demands for humane governance to issues of water rights, federalism should be strengthened as various bodies including the Justice Sarkaria Commission had suggested.
This means that the legislature cannot be subordinated to the executive.
Also, that the existing government cannot be rendered powerless by judicial scrutiny, which empowers the words and phrases of the Constitution but not its basic structure, even disregarding important debates in the Constituent Assembly, not to speak of in other relevant federations and their bodies.
This is not a matter merely of LG Najeeb Jung, PM Narendra Modi or Arvind Kejriwal. It is a matter of democracy.
It is a matter of the population of Delhi overwhelmingly choosing their representatives, and finding themselves bereft of influence and power by machinations which are a disgrace to our democracy.
It seems too many secular politicians are standing by and watching an impetuous and upstart political party storm the capital. But they should remember that the same or worse could happen to them.
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