New Delhi: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal ended his nine-day-long sit-in protest at Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal’s residence after the latter, in response to a letter sent by deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, urged Kejriwal to immediately convene a meeting with IAS officers to end their four-month undeclared “strike”.
Kejriwal, who was left with just minister Gopal Rai for company in a waiting room of Raj Niwas, as Sisodia and Satyendar Jain had been taken to hospital due to their deteriorating health following the fast, decided to leave the protest venue after the L-G’s appeal.
Later he was quoted by the Aam Aadmi Party as saying that “the protest action had completely exposed BJP as the nation saw how in the capital city of Delhi, the Prime Minister had got the IAS officers to strike work”.
Soon after, former adviser and AAP leader Raghav Chadha tweeted that officers have returned to work and normalcy has been restored in Delhi.
Sisodia, who was removed on health grounds from Raj Niwas yesterday, had soon written to Baijal urging him to call a meeting of IAS officers with representatives of the elected government.
He had stated that since security and service matters were under the L-G and the IAS officers had tweeted that they were disposed to meet the Kejriwal government to discuss all issues, the elected government was willing to give all assurances of security that the officers want. Sisodia had also stated that the Kejriwal government, which had been demanding an end to the strike by officers, wanted an early resolution to the various issues that had propelled the protest.
Sisodia’s appeal and assurance of security to all officers had an immediate impact. While all the meetings called by Delhi ministers were attended by IAS officers and other officers, the L-G also responded by urging the elected functionaries to call a meeting of the IAS officers to resolve the contentious issues.
At least four meetings during the day were attended by the IAS officers. Sisodia also tweeted that one of these meetings was attended by chief secretary Anshu Prakash as well. However, talking to the media Sisodia, also expressed his apprehension that the Centre would resort to some other means to curb the Delhi government’s working.
Delhi Social Welfare and SC/ST minister Rajendra Pal Gautam tweeted that IAS officers attended all meetings during the day.
While the crisis around the IAS officers appears to have blown over for the time being, other developments during the day indicate that the tussle between the Narendra Modi government at the Centre and the Kejriwal government in Delhi may not show any signs of abating.
Before he came out of Raj Niwas, Kejriwal had also tweeted angrily about the police forcibly evicting lawyer and former Delhi minister Somnath Bharti from Raj Niwas. Bharti had complained that instead of hearing him and another person, the L-G had used forced to have him removed from the premises. At this Kejriwal questioned “why is L-G refusing to meet MLAs, MPs, ministers, CM?” He added that “he has no choice but to meet them”.
Kejriwal, who had earlier written a letter to the prime minister urging his intervention in prevailing over the L-G to get the IAS officers to end their “strike”, wrote another letter today in which he, in a tongue-in-cheek manner, told Modi that before he became prime minister Delhi was half a state, and that after his coming to power, it had been reduced to a tenth of a state.
Kejriwal also noted that democracy has been put to danger by the Centre not allowing the states ruled by the opposition to function and demanded full statehood for Delhi. He also appealed to the PM to tell his government function for the welfare of the citizens of Delhi and to direct the L-G to resolve the impasse involving IAS officers.
The Aam Aadmi Party has also drawn up plans to write letters to demand full statehood for Delhi.