AAP-Centre tussle intensifies, additional police force deployed

New Delhi, June 15

With the Centre deploying more police force near the Lt. Governor’s house, the AAP on Friday apprehended moves to break the four-day-old sit-in strike by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, even as his Deputy Manish Sisodia threatened to intensify their agitation.

Rushing an ambulance along with a team of over 20 doctors added to panic in the AAP camp, which deputed its General Secretary Sanjay Singh to meet Home Minister Rajnath Singh in a bid to sort out the issue.

After the meeting, Sanjay Singh claimed that the Centre had agreed to take up the current situation in Delhi with Lt. Governor Anil Baijal and find a solution to the row over governance.

Rajnath Singh is likely to meet the Prime Minister to discuss the situation, even as Kejriwal wrote to Modi seeking his intervention.

“The IAS officers in Delhi have been on strike for the last three months and this had badly affected several (administrative) works. In order to get this strike ended, my three ministers and I have been camping in the Lt Governor office for the last five days, but your Lt Governor is not taking any action”, Kejriwal wrote in the letter.

He said since the IAS officers in the Delhi administration are directly under the Central government’s control, he had written to the Prime Minister on Thursday also over the issue but got no response.

“The issues to be discussed in the NITI Aayog meet scheduled on June 17 will have to be executed by these IAS officers only... These IAS officers have been barred (by the Centre) to come to meetings called by Delhi Ministers. Tell me, will you be able to do any work if IAS officers stop coming to the meetings called by you?” Kejriwal said.

“I hope the IAS officers’ strike will be ended before June 17 so that I can attend the NITI Aayog meet that day,” he added.

Kejriwal, along with Sisodia and Cabinet ministers Satyendar Jain and Gopal Rai, has been camping in the Raj Niwas—the official accommodation-cum-office of Lt Governor Anil Baijal—since Monday evening.

They have been demanding a direction to the IAS officers working in the Delhi administration to end their undeclared strike, action against officers who have struck work and approval to his government’s proposal for doorstep delivery of ration to the poor.

Earlier, in a video released from the Lt Governor’s office, Kejriwal asked the party workers to launch a campaign similar to the one they did over electricity bills.

“After Sunday, if there is no response on our demands, go door-to-door and bring sign of at least 10 lakh families. We will forward it to the Prime Minister. He is not responding on my demands, so the people of Delhi will ask him,” Kejriwal said.

“Our government has done so much in the past three years, which is difficult for them (the Bharatiya Janata Party) to explain. They are in power in Madhya Pradesh from the past 15 years, in Gujarat from past 30 years. As they are not able to do developmental work in their states, they want to stop us,” Kejriwal added The AAP convenor also said that he was not sitting there demanding something for himself or his children.

“I am also not sitting here for AC or sofa. I have it in my house. If you feel I am sitting here for my comfort, go and try to sleep on sofa for four days. We are here for Delhi, for its people,” he added.

Ambulances and a team of over 20 doctors reached the LG office on Friday as Jain and Sisodia’s indefinite fast entered the fourth and third day respectively.

Additional force has also been deployed in the area. According to informed sources, the LG office is planning to take them out of the office forcefully.

Sisodia released a video saying they are not going to end the fast until their demands are met.

“We are sitting inside the LG Office from the past five days. Jainji is on a hunger strike from the past four days and I am from the past three days,” Sisodia said in the video. “We are totally fit, our body is totally fine.” Sisodia said: “We have been informed that a number of doctors were called here and there is a plan to pick us up forcefully”.

He warned the LG and the Prime Minister against doing any such thing, saying they will also stop taking water if taken away forcefully.

Former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Cikshit held Kejriwal responsible for the “stalemate” and advised him to approach Prime Minister Narendra Modi and demand full statehood instead of protesting.

She also accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of protesting to hide their failures on real issues. “For this stalemate in Delhi, Kejriwal is responsible,” she said. — IANS