Sunday Snippets
By Venkatesh Raghavan
The Centre’s move to restrict the powers of the duly elected Legislative Assembly representing the voters in the Union Territory requires a scrutiny. As it is, such decisions don’t go down well with both political circles and common masses. An earlier Supreme Court observation that as elected representative of the people, it was their democratic right to have a say in matters that pertain to administering the union territory is now being widely cited by politicians from the opposition ranks across hues. While the whole electoral process of people of Delhi electing the ruling Aam Aadmi Party government with an overwhelming majority of 63 seats in the 70 member assembly feel defeated by this move. Not surprisingly therefore that a certain degree of fatalism has crept into the legislative arm after being rendered virtually toothless.
It may be recalled that the former Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry, Kiran Bedi trying to directly impose her will on the UT by overriding the jurisdictions of the elected Congress government had not gone down well with the electorate. Fearing that a sympathy wave might work in favour of the Congress-Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam coalition, the Bharatiya Janata Party ruled Centre quickly sought her resignation, stepping into damage control mode, months before the current round of elections that were held in early April, 2021.
Those analysing the implications of such a move, strongly feel that elections to the Legislative Assembly of any Union Territory might get rendered into a non-event, with all powers being wrested with the Lt Governor who is appointed by the Party at the Centre. Though the rules being tweaked by the Centre is at present viewed as one more of the arm twisting gimmicks from the ruling BJP dispensation, experts are of the opinion that this might prove to be a self goal. Citing that a strong sympathy wave might prove to be a backlash for the Centre wanting to throw a spanner into the works of the elected legislators, politicians also pointed out that form a long term perspective, it could also mean the murder of democracy as the Party at the Centre will be calling the shots, regardless of which political group gets elected.
The legal experts when queried, felt that the current Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal could exercise the option of judicial intervention. It however, would require his counsel to establish that the bill that has been passed amounts to being ultra vires the Constitution.
The BJP parliamentarians however opined the bill did not seek to strip the legislative arm of its powers and was only meant to streamline the functioning of the administrative machinery.
The instance of Kejriwal demanding his government be granted control over the Delhi police got cited, with the query how will the government be able to raise over INR 37,000 crores to run the constabulary after assuming command. It was also pointed out that the local Civic bodies are currently run by the BJP and this implies each authority has its roles demarcated already.
To sum up, what looks like a political tug-of-war between AAP and BJP may end up being a strong leaning towards a centrally governed authority.
