Delhi Assembly session: CM Rekha Gupta tables CAG report; 14 AAP MLAs suspended

Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Tuesday tabled the report of the Comptroller and Audit General (CAG) on the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy in the Delhi Assembly.

"Today only one report will be tabled in the house as it is massive, voluminous in size and a backlog of many years. We want all things should come clearly before the people of Delhi. Like this, the second report will also be presented," Speaker Vijender Gupta said.

He said it was a grave matter that the report was not tabled by the previous AAP government for several years. "In my view, this a criminal offence.." he said.

Quoting the High Court, the Speaker said, "It is quite evident that most of these CAG reports were kept pending with the Respondent No. 1, Delhi Government, and the Respondent No. 2, Chief Minister, for an inordinately long period of time."

Speaking in the House, MLA Arvinder Singh Lovely said, "You are raising slogans about Baba Saheb Ambedkar but murdering his thoughts with your actions. What was Anna Hazare's protest all about, a movement against corruption and it was on the basis of a CAG report that had alleged corruption in the then Delhi government. It is because of the CAG report you began the protest, sat in Ramlila Maidan, even formed your Aam Aadmi Party. I believe these 11 years of AAP rule have been the most shameless years of Delhi democratic history."

He said for the past 10 years, not a single CAG report had been tabled in this Assembly.

Lovely attacked AAP for the ongoing controversy about replacing pictures of Dr BR Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh with that of President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying that when he was a minister in the Sheila Dikshit government of Delhi, there was picture of the then President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee in his office.

"It is the AAP government who removed pictures of the President and the Prime Minister from the government offices," Lovely alleged.

Meanwhile, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report tabled in the Assembly, the Delhi Government suffered cumulative losses exceeding Rs 2,000 crore due to the now-scrapped 2021-22 excise policy, largely due to a weak policy framework and deficient implementation.

The report, one of the 14 audit reviews on the previous Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government's performance, being presented by the new Rekha Gupta-led administration, has also pointed to violations in the licensing process.

It stated that recommendations from an expert panel formed to suggest changes in the policy’s formulation were ignored by then deputy chief minister and excise minister Manish Sisodia.

Ruckus by AAP MLAs

Earlier, the session began on a stormy note with Opposition AAP creating ruckus as LG VK Saxena began addressing the House.

The moment Saxena began his speech, AAP MLAs Jarnail Singh, Anil Jha and Vishesh Ravi raised slogans like "Jai Bhim, Jai Bhim", "Baba Saheb ka yeh Apmaan, Nahi Sahega Hindustan".

Speaker Vijender Gupta initially warned the Opposition to maintain decorum and remain seated. However, as his directives were not adhered to, the Speaker asked the marshals to escort the MLAs out of the house.

One by one, the Speaker suspended 14 MLAs — Leader of Opposition (LoP) Atishi, Anil Jha, Jarnail Singh, Vishesh Ravi, Som Dutt, Surendra Singh, Vir Singh Dhingan, Mukesh Ahlawat, Virender Singh Kadian, Kuldeep Kumar, Chaudhary Zubair Ahmad, MLA Gopal Rai, MLA Ajay Dutt and MLA Imran Hussain — for the entire day of the proceedings.

LoP Atishi kept saying "Jai Bhim" as the marshals forced her out of the House.

The opposition AAP has been protesting against the BJP-ruled Delhi Government for allegedly replacing portraits of Dr BR Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh with the picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the wall of the Chief Minister's Office.

A day earlier, the BJP had shared the picture of the CM's office which showed that both portraits were there on the wall of the room. Probably, their position was changed from one wall to another.

The former Chief Minister, after being marshalled out on Tuesday, conducted a press conference where she again levelled the same allegations and showed a picture of the offices of ministers Manjinder Singh Sirsa and Kapil Mishra.

"Why has the picture of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh been removed from BJP Minister Manjinder Sirsa's office? Why has the portrait of Ambedkar ji been removed from Kapil Mishra's office? They have to answer this," Atishi said.

The Leader of Opposition even showed the picture of the CM's office which was shared by the BJP a day back claiming that both the portraits had not been removed. However, Atishi attacked the BJP for changing the location of those two pictures from one wall to the other.

"This is the same picture shared by the BJP. Today, I want to ask the BJP on behalf of the entire country, do you think that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is bigger than Dr BR Amdekar?" questioned Atishi.