Arvind Kejriwal must learn from growing list of 'overturned' Delhi govt decisions: Rhetoric cannot replace governance

For years now, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s rhetoric has been reigning over the National Capital’s politics. But three populist decisions taken by the Delhi government, which were recently turned down by appropriate authorities, show that the Delhi government has to focus more on governance than on rhetoric. The series of bad news came one after the other across Kejriwal’s desk last week. On 20 December, Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi Anil Baijal decided to withhold the most publicised bill to regularise 15,000 guest teachers and intimated the Delhi High Court accordingly. [caption id=“attachment_4246895” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. PTI[/caption] On the same day, the high court stayed the government’s circular on fee hikes in private schools. A day prior to that, the ‘Appellate Authority’ had stayed the government order cancelling the license of Max Hospital Shalimar Bagh – on the ground of repeatedly defying government order and negligence to the duty of doctors. All three decisions, which hardly had any legal substance, mark Kejriwal government’s preference for rhetoric over governance. They were in addition to the decisions to pass 14 bills last year, which were also returned without assent by the Centre for procedural lapses on part of the Delhi government. Such ‘high on rhetoric and low on substance’ decisions have done more disservice to the common man whom he claims to represent, as they result in sheer wastage of time, public resources and energy. Guest teacher’s regularisation bill withheld Significantly, when the Delhi government announced its decision to table the bill for regularisation of guest teachers on 4 October, the L-G wrote to the chief minister reminding him not to go ahead with the bill as issues related to the service in Delhi government were under his jurisdiction and hence outside the purview of the legislature. But rather than paying any heed to it, Kejriwal resorted to rhetoric deriding the L-G. “We are the masters of Delhi. The nation runs by democracy and not by bureaucracy,” he said  addressing the legislature while tabling the bill.

It was not the first time that Kejriwal turned down informed advice for the sake of populism. The government was advised by the law department not to go ahead with the decision to give weightage to guest teachers in their appointment, as it was not legally permissible.

The reaction to this piece of expert advice from the chief minister was apathetic. Instead of listening to it, he directed the law minister to get a new legal team. Sowmya Gupta, director, Delhi education department, puts the reaction of the chief minister aptly in an affidavit filed in the Delhi High Court. “Hon’ble chief minister recorded his views on the functioning of the law department and minister (law) was directed to replace the current officers with a legally sound team.” The curious case of Max hospital The Delhi government could have avoided the embarrassment it faced in the Max hospital case, in which its decision to cancel the hospital’s license was struck down by the appellate authority. The Delhi government issued the order to cancel its license after the hospital authorities erroneously handed over a living newborn as dead to its parents. As per the law, this was a case to be heard by the Delhi medical council and there was no provision in it empowering the Delhi government to cancel the hospital’s license. Soon after the Delhi government’s decision to cancel the license of Max Hospital, Ashok Agarwal, a member of the Delhi High Court Monitoring Committee on the treatment of economically weaker section patients in private hospitals, slammed the Delhi government’s move as impractical. “The government can suspend the license of a private hospital only in cases of deficiency in infrastructure it is required to have as per law and not on other grounds,” he said. Even then, rhetoric took the front seat instead of the issue of governance at hand. The chief minister said: “If we had entered into a setting with the hospital, we would not have been able to face our conscience and would have lost the faith of the people.” Soon after, the order to cancel the license of the hospital was struck down by the appellate authority. Can private schools increase fee at will? The blanket order to increase fees in private schools in order to pay staffs and teachers as per the recommendations of the seventh pay commission was not only legally untenable but also puts a question mark on the Delhi government’s sense of responsibility. Delhi has more than 250 schools which are situated on land allotted by the Delhi government and are required to take permission from the government to increase fees. A blanket order to all the schools to increase fees without going through the account books of these schools is seen as a case of shaking off the government’s responsibility. Moreover, only this year, the Justice Anil Dev Singh Committee submitted its report where it stated that more than 400 schools had increased school fees on the pretext of paying teachers and staff as per recommendations of the sixth pay commission, even when they had enough funds to meet the new expenses without burdening the parents. The committee also ordered these schools to pay back the excess fees they collected from parents, which many of the schools are yet to comply with. Hence the Delhi government had more than one legal reasons not to proceed with the blanket order, but still, it did just that to follow its populist agenda of fulfilling the demand of salary increase made by teachers and staffs. No wonder then that the move was stayed by the Delhi high court. Spurning of all these decisions sends a clear message to the government – no rhetoric can replace effective governance.