Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by the Education Department today.
New Delhi:
The decade-long rivalry between Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP and the BJP’s rule at the Center came to a head on Thursday with the Delhi chief minister being arrested by the education ministry in a money laundering case related to the excise policy.
The fight between the two sides began at almost the same time, with Narendra Modi’s BJP gaining a massive mandate in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and the AAP forming the government in Delhi, winning 67 assembly elections a year later. A historic victory among 70 seats.
Even before that, Mr Kejriwal, after briefly serving as Delhi chief minister in 2013, challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a highly publicized contest in Varanasi in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, creating a fight that has lasted for years. competition laid the foundation.
In February this year, Kejriwal, who is also the national convener of the AAP, while addressing the Delhi Assembly, claimed that the AAP was the “biggest threat” to the BJP and vowed to liberate the country from it in the 2029 Lok Sabha polls come out.
The confrontation between the Kejriwal government and the Center over governance-related issues has taken on a political overtone and recriminations, with both the Australian Action Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party joining their respective camps.
The Aam Aadmi Party has been in frequent clashes with the lieutenant governor’s office since it came to power in Delhi in 2015.
The matter began soon after the Kejriwal government came to power, with a confrontation with the then deputy governor Najeeb Jung over issues such as control of the anti-corruption wing, transfers and appointments of senior officials and transfer of official files.
The AAP strongly attacked Mr Jung, who set up a three-member committee headed by India’s former Comptroller and Auditor General VK Shunglu to investigate 400 Delhi government documents.
Another controversy broke out when Jung appointed an IAS principal secretary, but Kejriwal asked the secretary not to take responsibility and even closed his office over it.
Even after Mr Cheng resigned in December 2016 and was replaced by former Union Home Minister Anil Baijal, the tussle between the AAP distribution and the LG office continued.
Mr Baijal has witnessed numerous face-offs in his more than five years as Delhi local government, the most notable of which was when Chief Minister Kejriwal was accompanied by his cabinet colleagues inside the Raj Niwas in 2018 held a dharna, claiming that city bureaucrats were not listening to ministers.
The AAP’s jurisdiction also clashed with Mr Baijal over the appointment of a special prosecutor to try cases related to the 2020 Delhi riots and anti-CAA protests.
In July 2021, then deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia objected to Mr Baikal holding meetings with officials and directing them to carry out work that fell directly within the purview of the elected government.
After the current deputy governor VK Saxena took office in May 2022, a more intense confrontation ensued.
Within two months, Saxena recommended a CBI probe into alleged irregularities and procedural lapses in the formulation and implementation of the Kejriwal government’s GST policy for 2021-22.
This opened a new chapter in the tense relationship between AAP and the other side, with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arresting Sisodia and party MP Sanjay Singh in connection with the liquor scam.
The AAP has stepped up its attack on the BJP and its government at the Center after the education ministry issued summons to Mr Kejriwal in a money laundering case related to the GST policy and another case related to the Delhi Jal Board (DJB).
The AAP leadership has accused the BJP of trying to undermine the party by sending the Delhi chief minister to jail and overthrowing his government in Delhi.
The BJP, on the other hand, is lashing out at AAP and Kejriwal for alleging corruption in the Delhi government.
The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, which was implemented in August 2023, empowered the local government of Delhi to play a more proactive role in governance-related matters, triggering strong protests from the Kejriwal government and the AAP.
The power tussle between the Kejriwal government and the Center stems from a notification issued by the home ministry in May 2015 that the Delhi local government would have jurisdiction over services, public order, police and land matters.
The notification paves the way for a long legal battle between the two sides in the Delhi High Court and Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court on May 11, 2023 ruled in favor of the Delhi government to expand its executive powers in service matters involving transfers and appointments of senior officials.
Within days of the Supreme Court verdict, the BJP-led Center brought an ordinance, which later turned into a bill, to restore the balance of power in favor of its representative LG.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
