NCT Bill clears Rajya Sabha: Black day, Arvind Kejriwal says bid to take away governance
Calling it a “black day for democracy in India”, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said the Government of NCT of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, was an attempt by the BJP to “snatch governance” through the “chor darwaza”.
In a video address soon after Rajya Sabha passed the Bill, Kejriwal also accused the BJP of “backstabbing the people of Delhi”, saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised statehood for Delhi in a pre-poll speech in 2014.
“I want to remind the Prime Minister… in the 2014 elections… you promised to make it (Delhi) a full state if you were elected… just pick up your own speech. Before that, prior to every election, the undertook political agitations for the cause of statehood for Delhi. Today, you have stabbed the people of Delhi in the back. You have gone back on your word. If this is what you do, who will believe the Prime Minister,” he said.
Calling himself “Dilli ka beta”, and saying Modi was trying to become “Dilli ka neta”, Kejriwal said the people of Delhi would not give the BJP a single Lok Sabha seat in 2024.
Delhi indirectly. “They (BJP) know it is very difficult to defeat the AAP in Delhi. They have lost four elections… It has been over 25 years since a BJP government was formed in Delhi. They realised that it is difficult to defeat the AAP so they have tried to snatch the governance of Delhi through the chor darwaza,” he said.
Calling it a “black day for democracy in India”, Kejriwal said it would “enslave the people of Delhi”, drawing comparisons with the Government of India Act enacted by the British in 1935. Kejriwal said Modi had become so “arrogant” that he neither wanted to listen to the people of Delhi nor the Supreme Court. Asking him not to “interfere” in Delhi’s affairs, he said: “The law that has been passed today says that the Centre will make policies for all categories of Delhi government’s employees from top to bottom… the PM will sit and decide which peon will do what work. Is this what the Prime Minister’s job is now? Why don’t you run the Centre? Why are you interfering in Delhi?”
