Not done

The AAP-BJP conflict in Delhi has degenerated beyond the limits of acceptable bizarreness. Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash has alleged that he was physically assaulted by two AAP MLAs in the presence of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal; he even allowed himself to  be persuaded to file an FIR against the offending MLAs. The Delhi Police has promptly arrested two MLAs. The AAP, in turn, has charged the bureaucrat with having used casteist slurs on the legislators. There will be no — nor can there be any — authoritative word of what transpired at the Delhi Chief Minister’s residence; only recriminations and bad blood. But, whatever the provocation, it is most unhelpful — and, most unacceptable — if the seniormost bureaucrat in the Delhi administration feels himself physically intimidated. 

The Chief Minister has to be held, partly, responsible for this kind of unbecoming  incident. Arvind Kejriwal has a unique style of functioning. It is difficult to appreciate why the meeting between the Chief Secretary and the legislators had to take place at or around mid-night. As the Chief Minister, it is incumbent upon Kejriwal to control and calibrate any interaction between the MLAs and the bureaucrats; if the matter came to such an ignoble pass, the blame must lie squarely  with the Chief Minister. 

By now it should have been obvious to the AAP leadership that the Centre is out to filibuster its political narrative and suborn its administrative achievements. As per the law, the Centre and its nominee, the Lieutenant-Governor (LG) hold most of the constitutional aces while the popularly elected government has the burden of  answering to an impatient and demanding electorate. In this case, the BJP government at the Centre is most unforgiving for having handed the BJP that extremely humiliating defeat in February 2015. The LG has reinvented himself as a hostile source of constitutional pinpricks. The AAP has to devise a new narrative and summon a new imagination to tell the people of Delhi what it can do and what it is not being allowed to do. Episodes like the Chief Secretary-MLAs spat do not help.