The problem with our politicians is that they are always driven by the thoughts of narrow political gains over national interest and policies. The most recent example of such a mindset of our politicians was evident in the manner in which four chief ministers of the country rushed to the support of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The chief ministers of Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal said many things after being denied permission to meet their Delhi counterpart. But not a single word was spoken about the demands raised by Mr. Kejriwal. They sidestepped the real issues by simply saying that in a democracy people’s representatives should be given the highest priority. Will that be enough to resolve the current impasse within the Delhi administration? A careful study of Kejriwal’s three main demands clearly points out that a solution of the present situation cannot be achieved only by giving some more powers to MPs and MLAs as the issues raised by him are far more complicated.
For example, since the demand for statehood of Delhi was raised, debate started whether it should be given full statehood or a limited one, keeping in view the fact that Delhi is the country’s capital too. Citing the example of other countries, along with security issues the Centre has all along maintained that granting full statehood to Delhi is not possible. Delhi Assembly was well within its rights to pass a resolution demanding statehood. But that doesn’t mean that the Centre will succumb to its pressure in the name of giving more power to the people’s representatives. The issue can only be sorted out through deliberations instead of politics of agitation. Quite strangely, the four chief ministers who have come forward to support the Delhi chief minister are completely silent on this issue.
Secondly, Kejriwal demanded that IAS officers in Delhi should be asked to resume their duties giving up the protests. Few points should be noted first. First of all, IAS officers in Delhi are not on strike. They are continuing their work barring a five minute agitation everyday in protest against the high handedness of the Kejriwal Government. Why are they doing so? IAS officers in Delhi are protesting against the misbehaviour of some of the ministers and MLAs with the chief secretary in presence of the chief minister where the bureaucrat was allegedly beaten. The incident has created mistrust between the ruling party and the bureaucrats. How can the matter be resolved without the guilty being punished? Mr. Kejriwal may sit in dharna inside the Lieutenant Governor’s office for days. But will that be able to restore the trust between the two sides? So instead of siding with Kejriwal, it would have been better for the four chief ministers to talk to both the sides in an effort to remove mistrust to ensure smooth functioning of an elected government. Unfortunately, they ignored the real issues and expressed solidarity with Kejriwal just because all of them are opposed to the ruling party at the Centre. Such partisan attitude of our leaders will take the nation nowhere.
