Various parties today hailed as a "big victory" for democracy the verdict of the Supreme Court laying broad parameters for governance in Delhi, and hoped the bitter power tussle between the Centre and the state government would end and better governance delivered to people who have suffered till now.
While Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal welcomed the verdict terming it a "big victory" for people and democracy, he blamed the Narendra Modi government for creating a "chaos" in the national capital in the past three-and-a-half years.
"If Modi govt had not withdrawn the powers of elected govt through illegal orders, precious three years would have been saved. People of Delhi are grateful to judiciary. Today's order reinforces people's faith in judiciary," Kejriwal tweeted.
Welcoming the verdict, the Congress hoped that better sense would prevail on both sides and governance and delivery of services to people of Delhi would begin in the right earnest.
The Congress also hoped that the verdict will put an end to the ego clash between the prime minister and the Delhi chief minister. It said the AAP should stop making excuses for not doing governance and the BJP should stop creating unnecessary hurdles in governing Delhi.
The BJP asserted that with the verdict, it has been established that the Constitution is the "boss" and there is no room for "anarchism" of the ruling party in the national capital.
The left parties also welcomed the judgement.
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The central government, however, sought to downplay the verdict, saying the court only underlined the special status of Delhi as not being a 'state' in the conventional sense.
A senior government functionary said the judgment has made it clear that Delhi cannot frame laws which are in contravention of laws being implemented by the Centre.
"Delhi is a special area and the Lt Governor is not like other governors. Therefore, the main pleas of the AAP government have been rejected by the Supreme Court," he said.
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said the SC judgement contains important lessons for Puducherry as well.
"Thumping victory for representative democracy. I welcome SC judgement in the Delhi Government versus LG case....The SC judgement contains important lessons for Puducherry as well," he said on Twitter.
Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, "No elected government in garb of a conflict with the Centre should resort to non-governance as has been happening in Delhi."
Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken said, "There is no scope for any blame game. Delhi gave seven seats to the BJP in the Lok Sabha election, and 67 out of 70 seats to the AAP in the Assembly election. Both of them in the last four years have destroyed the development carried out by the Congress government while engaging in blame game."