By Sidharth Mishra
The Lok Sabha on Monday in all likelihood would take up a discussion on the Delhi Services Bill. Given the huge majority which the treasury benches have in the house, the passage of the bill here would at best be of academic interest. This would also be possible only if there is a debate in the house, which again is suspect, given the prevailing attitude of the opposition benches.
The dramatics could be expected in the Rajya Sabha, where a united opposition under the banner of INDIA can cobble up the requisite strength to create a roadblock. Just a roadblock and not a wall, in the passage of the bill, as the more elaborate arithmetic favours NDA.
With the Supreme Court having more or less distanced itself from the debate on whom should the power to transfer bureaucrats rest in Delhi, it refused to stay the Ordinance brought by the Centre, Delhi chief minister’s office getting shorn of this power is now almost a fait accompli. Kejriwal himself has stated that under the new arrangement he enjoys no powers.
Delhi chief minister today is a in a precarious state, which is of his own making. In as recent an order as July 21, on the directions of the Services department, the release of salary of the contractual staff of the Delhi Jal Board too have been stopped. Most of the people whose salary has been withheld are part of Kejriwal’s personal staff.
Will the chief minister be able to hold onto a staff whose salary his government is unable to pay? Personal loyalties aside but a professional would find it real difficult to continue in a job sans a salary. It almost reduces Kejriwal to the state of being a chief minister without staff.
The old timers would recall that even under the pre-1993 disposition of Metropolitan Council, the Chief Metropolitan Councillor and the Executive Councillors were much better off than the present chief minister and his cabinet colleagues. Unfortunately there are not many sympathising for their perilous state.
The best chance Kejriwal had in this matter was when the Supreme Court gave judgment giving powers of transfers to the state government. In his hour of triumph, Kejriwal should have acted with humility instead of ‘showcasing’ it at a press conference and pronouncing vengeance towards the officers manning the services department.
This forced the Centre to bring in an Ordinance restoring, to use the legal terminology, the status quo ante. The concerned officers were back in the saddle in less than three days’ time with no love lost for the state government. Thereafter has followed a spate of circulars announcing ‘corrective measures’ including the termination of the contract of several ‘experts’ who were on the rolls of either Delhi Assembly or the various autonomous bodies like the Delhi Jal Board.
A more mature leader would have taken the triumph in his stride, walked up to the Lieutenant Governor to assuage the hurt which the order would have caused, developed a consultation mechanism and have had his way using suaveness. However, Kejriwal from day one has made no bones about his animus for the official bureaucracy.
The officers have been expected to carry out work which doesn’t have the legal sanction. Those who have resisted and insisted to go by the book in the past, including a chief secretary, have been threatened, shamed, and in an instance even assaulted.
Given the difficult situation he is in, with his two senior colleagues behind the bars, least Kejriwal could have done was to put his office in order. Alas! That did not happen and today he remains a chief minister with unpaid staff.
(First Published in The Morning Standard)
