Friday, January 17, 2014

Too early to criticize

Despite various types of shortcomings coming to the fore about 19 days old Aam Admi Party government in Delhi, it is too early to be disillusioned with it. As it has got stunning success in Delhi Assembly elections and come to power in a very short period of coming into existence as a political party with the outside support of Congress Party, there is also every possibility of AAP losing its sheen among Delhiites very early if its ministers continue to cross their constitutional right and duty. Within 19 days of the formation of AAP government headed by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Vinod Kumar Binny, a prominent and senior AAP MLA, has rebelled against Kejriwal and called him dictator and liar publicly. He has also charged the AAP government of Kejriwal with drifting away from the promises made to the people during the election campaigns. He has charged Kejriwal of running a coterie of four to five leaders and all the decisions are taken in a closed room. Binny said that taking public opinion on the issue of ticket distribution and any other issues was mere a drama and every thing was pre-decided. These are serious charges which need to be rejected with sufficient evidence by none other than CM Kejriwal himself as he always rides very high moral ground. AAP spokesperson has refuted all the charges levelled against the government by the rebellious MLA Binny and said that because he was denied ministerial birth and Lok Sabha ticket from East, he has rebelled. Whatever may be the truth behind it, one thing is certain that all is not well in the AAP government. The way AAP Law Minister Somnath Bharti asked his law secretary to call a meeting of judges at Secretariat shows one thing very clearly that he is crossing his limit of power. A state law minister can not call a meeting of judges. High Court Judge can only call the meeting of judges of district and sub-divisional courts. His over activism does not end here. Somnath Bharti’s duel with the police in public over his order to arrest the gang of prostitutes and raid the prostitution racket tells a different story. The law minister was on night inspection when he found that prostitution was practised illegally in a residential area. He wanted the police to arrest the prostitutes and drug traffickers from the area. Police refused to carry out his order on the ground that they can not arrest nor raid until and unless they are equipped with arrest or search warrant. Delhi police may be arrogant but the due process of law has to be followed. And this is not the proper way for a minister to issue verbal order to police to do this or that. If he had information about the prostitution racket being run in particular area, he could have asked the police officer by getting the complaint lodged with the police station and in that case if the police did not act, it would be a case of police compromise with the law breakers in Delhi. Likewise, another Minister Rakhi Birla reportedly sat on dharna against police inaction in the case of dowry harassment. The AAP ministers must know that they are no longer agitationists. They have now constitutional responsibility and accountability.

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