From sexism to racism, the BJP gets innovative with allegations against Kejriwal on Gamlin issue

If you were to jot down the number of controversies AAP and the Delhi government have found themselves in over the past couple of months, you’d get a script for a potentially successful Bollywood potboiler. So there was drama - in the form of AAP minister law minister being accused of faking his law degree. There was emotion - in the way of the big, weepy breakup between Kejriwal and Yadav-Bhushan. And then there was romance, at least a hint of it, thanks to the alleged affair between Kumar Vishwas and ahem, a married woman. [caption id=“attachment_2247956” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Shakuntala Gamlin. Image courtesy: Delhi government website[/caption] And now there is battle. The discord between L-G Najeeb Jung and the Kejriwal government is no less than a war. And the middle of it is Shakuntala Gamlin, an IAS officer from Arunachal Pradesh. The government on its part has accused her of being close to discoms and has objected her elevation to the position of chief secretary of Delhi. As the several parties trade accusations and the Delhi government find itself in the middle of yet another high voltage drama, there have been some really interesting arguments against Kejriwal and his government.  And most of these accusations, are quite predictably, coming from the BJP stable. For example, the party initially accused the Delhi CM of indulging in sexism. _Firstpost_ had reported in an earlier copy: “City wing president Satish Upadhyay said in a press statement, “Mr Kejriwal may give 100 reasons of opposing the appointment of Mrs Shakuntla Gamblin as the acting chief secretary but the truth is that he is opposing her appointment because she is a woman. How can we expect a Chief Minister who did not include a single woman in his cabinet to accept a woman as chief secretary?” That’s a fairly convenient allegation to make for the BJP at this point. The Kejriwal government has cited her proximity to power companies and Gamlin herself had written to the L-G saying that the government has accused her of being close to them, so there is no obvious sign of gender-based discrimination. Yet, it is perhaps easy for the BJP to lob such an accusation, especially when the AAP is still smarting from the split with Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav. Though the BJP had not accused Kejriwal of sexism or any such gender bias, they had hinted that the party’s functioning is undemocratic to say the least. It is easy to insinuate the party is sexist, when its own former members have accused it of being undemocratic. Then again, minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju has suggested that Gamlin is being discriminated against because she comes from a north-eastern state. “I would like to condemn the unfortunate act of the intimidation and pressure and an act of character assassination being adopted by Kejriwal and his government. The people of northeast are very much hurt by the unnecessary act of character assassination against an upright officer from northeast. Shakuntala Gamlin is known to be a good officer. If there is something against her, it should be officially brought and action must be taken,” Rijiju said.  Again, Gamlin herself has mentioned no such discriminatory behaviour on the part of the Kejriwal government. However, this again is a convenient allegation to make since AAP came under fire last year when it failed to respond to the murder of Nido Tania on time. Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia had joined the protest but members of the community accused them of not acting promptly on the issue. “Mr Kejriwal you are four days late. Where was the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) when we went out to protest at Lajpat Nagar police station,” activist Binalakshmi Nepram had said back then. It’s difficult to say how much weight these allegations carry, but as far as India’s politics is concerned there’s no harm in playing blame games, right?