Don't bow to pressure from Congress: Kejriwal writes to L-G

After his party colleague Ashutosh hit out at the national capital’s Lieutenant Governor over the Jan Lokpal issue, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also wrote a letter to Najeeb Jung questioning the reason behind seeking the Solicitor General’s opinion on the matter and urging him to be impartial. Kejriwal started his letter by saying that he had always respected Jung but the incidents of the last few days had caused him ‘great pain’, and apologised for saying anything that might seem offensive. The Chief Minister said that he was surprised by media reports on the Jan Lokpal Bill given that they had sent the draft bill only yesterday. “Even if you had to seek an opinion you could have discussed the matter with me and I would have shared the copy with you and explained the details. Instead the Solicitor General’s opinion was given directly to the media,” Kejriwal said. [caption id=“attachment_1378895” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Kejriwal has argued that the Lieutenant Governor should allow the Jan Lokpal Bill in the assembly. PTI[/caption] The AAP leader pointed out that a high powered committee drafted the bill and opinions were sought from every department of the government before draft bill was prepared. “How has the Solicitor General declared the bill as unconstitutional without reading it?” Kejriwal asked. The Chief Minister said it wasn’t unconstitutional to produce the bill in the state legislature. “Excluding three topics the Constitution allows the Delhi Assembly to legislate on all issues,” he said. Kejriwal cited a specific article of the constitution which said that if any legislation passed by the Delhi Assembly coincides with a Central law then it would require the president’s assent, but that would be only after it was passed by the state assembly. “Nowhere in the constitution does it say that the nod of the central government is necessary before the bill is produced in the assembly,” he said. The Chief Minister said that the Union Home Ministry had passed an order instructing that legislation to be introduced in the Assembly should first be cleared by the Centre. “It is clear that this order of the Union Home Ministry is unconstitutional. The jurisdiction of the Delhi Assembly has been decided by the constitution. Can the Central government curb that jurisdiction by passing a order,” Kejriwal said. He said that if every law to be passed by an Assembly needed to be cleared by the centre it was questionable why elections were held for state assemblies. “This is a direct attack on the people of Delhi and the autonomy of the Delhi Assembly,” he charged. The Chief Minister said that the government had already taken the view of four eminent jurists and they had also agreed that the Union Home Ministry’s view is unconstitutional. Based on the opinion of the jurists the government wrote to the Centre seeking that the order be withdrawn and decided they would not follow the order, Kejriwal said. “I wanted to update you on these matters but before that the opinion of the Solicitor General was leaked to the media,” he said. He said that all the forces of corruption in the political sphere were ganging up against the AAP and were using small matters to defame the AAP. “I know you are under pressure from the Congress and the Ministry of Home Affairs. You will be pressurised to disallow the session of the Delhi Assembly in the Indira Gandhi stadium, you will be pressurised to not allow the Delhi Jan Lokpal to be introduced in the assembly. Because they know that if this bill is passed many of them will go to jail,” Kejriwal wrote They will try to defame me through your office by selectively leaking information, he alleged. He told the Lieutenant General that he had taken oath of loyalty to the Constitution and loyalty to any party or Ministry of Home Affairs. “I am not leaking this letter, I am making this letter available to the public,” Kejriwal said.