AAP still has big political plans. But BJP has its ways to check the rival바카라s ways.
Last week, a posse of policemen바카라answerable to the Union Home Ministry, not Delhi government바카라interrogated the deputy chief minister, Manish Sisodia. Their subject: chief secretary Anshu Prakash, who has charged ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders with assault during a meeting on February 19. Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has already been through a lengthy police grilling in the matter.
For all the questions and answers, the matter refuses to go away or arrive at a logical end. If public memories of le affaire Anshu Prakash were fading, intermittent police interventions regurgitate it on TV screens. The sequence of events is unreal: in most states, police are at the beck and call of ministers but in the capital it is just the reverse.
AAP leaders don바카라t hunt for words before concluding that these Q&As appear scripted. 바카라This was a well-orchestrated scheme put in place soon after AAP came to power,바카라 says party leader Ashish Khetan. 바카라The BJP and Congress are constantly trying to prove that we are no different from other parties바카라that바카라s exactly what they say after every incident.바카라
The AAP, ruling over symbolically potent Delhi, sees itself as the sole challenger to BJP바카라s cross-country rise. Bereft of control over policing and services바카라the latter now in L-G Anil Baijal바카라s domain바카라they changed course to stay relevant. It came to power on the anti-corruption plank but now sticks to water, electricity, schooling and the like.
바카라Everybody knows that other parties don바카라t want to hear about the work we are doing especially in education and healthcare,바카라 says Khetan. The AAP government raised the budget for education in 2016-17 to 23 per cent, when the national average was 15 per cent. This year, it allotted 12 per cent to health.
바카라The problem is not that the AAP runs mohalla clinics and schools or has lowered electricity and water dues. The problem is the Congress and the BJP never did these things,바카라 says JNU professor Kamal Mitra Chenoy, who worked with AAP in 2014 and 2015. 바카라The AAP is standing up to the BJP and Congress and also poses a political threat. Hence I feel that perhaps the chief secretary incident was first planned in theory then implemented in practice. Else, why would they question Sisodia months later?바카라
The way power is structured, the L-G in Delhi is answerable only to the Union, while a decision on distribution of powers in Delhi was reserved by the Supreme Court six months ago. Meanwhile, the BJP avoided a near-miss in the 2017 Gujarat polls, and now there바카라s talk of Opposition coalitions. Kejriwal has reached out far beyond Delhi, to star actor Kamalahasan in Tamil Nadu, for example, and the AAP wants to contest in Haryana next year.
바카라Whatever the AAP says, the BJP doesn바카라t influence police probe. Everyone caught doing wrong defends himself바카라that바카라s what the AAP is doing,바카라 says BJP national spokesperson Anil Baluni.
Between the two parties, more than just seven Lok Sabha seats of Delhi are at stake. To the AAP, these fights are about the BJP바카라s notion of power: anyone who defeats them must be made to bite the dust. 바카라These controversies would make AAP supporters think, 바카라maybe we should vote for them only in Delhi바카라 or 바카라maybe we shouldn바카라t vote for them바카라,바카라 Chenoy says.
To hold the February meeting late at night, in a city accustomed to the cloak and dagger, was a misstep. What the AAP had been saying until then바카라how their advertisements to mark four years in power took a week for bureaucrats to clear, how notices issued in December to deliver rations to doorsteps were pending even in February바카라seem, in retrospect, to be better chess moves.
That said, the police investigate the AAP with great keenness. Not long ago, a dog was dragged to court바카라the AAP바카라s Somnath Bharti바카라s pet. The idea was to see if Bharti had set his pet on his estranged wife. The animal, it turns out, didn바카라t attack despite expert prodding. The court concluded in Bharti바카라s favour. Maybe, if AAP-style investigations are launched for each complaint, the general standard of policing would improve for all Delhi.