Aam Aadmi Party leader Sanjay Singh on Friday attacked the Centre in Rajya Sabha, accusing it of creating hurdles in the functioning of Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi and muzzling the state governments through governors and lieutenant governors.
Participating in a discussion in Rajya Sabha on a private member's bill moved by MDMK founder Vaiko asking to bring back all the subjects which were transferred from the State List to the Concurrent List in the last 70 years, Singh alleged that the BJP-led cental government wants to run states through governors and lieutenant governors.
He also questioned as to how a person having political affiliation can become impartial after retirement from politics.
"Through governor and lieutenant governors you (Centre) are muzzling state government's rights. I believe these posts should be done away with," Singh said.
He claimed that the Aam Aadmi Party-led government in Delhi was the biggest sufferer in the country due to lack of transparency between the Centre and the states.
Highlighting that the AAP shot to power with an unprecedented mandate of 67 out of 70 seats in Delhi, Singh alleged that the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre soon after issued a directive entrusting the power of transfers and posting to the Union Home Ministry.
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Even the Anti Corruption Bureau which had filed 16 cases under the Commonwealth Games scam was brought under the Centre's administrative control, he said and asked what the Centre has done to bring the guilty to book in the Commonwealth Games scam.
Singh alleged that the Centre was creating hurdles in the work of Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi.
"Fake cases were filed against 25 MLAs of AAP, CBI raids were conducted on the offices of the Chief Minister (Kejriwal), and residences of Health and Education ministers of Delhi and the Enforcement Directorate also conducted raids on the house of the state's Transport minister," he said.
Countering the opposition's charge, BJP's Sudhanshu Trivedi said it is the BJP-led governments which created Uttarakhand and Jharkhand and thought about regional developmental aspirations of Ladakh.
"This shows our commitment towards the development and the regional aspect of various states," he said.
Observing that another aspect to terrorism has emerged in the last 25-30 years, Trivedi made a reference to the LTTE which was objected to by Vaiko. The MDMK founder hit out at Trivedi on the issue. However, his remarks were expunged.
V Vijayasai Reddy (YSRCP) said regional parties or the states want only absolute financial and economic powers. So far as other powers like internal security or defence, states are not interested in grabbing these powers from the Centre.
Reddy said had the Centre not been strong, probably Punjab or Kashmir which faced law and order problems would not have been part of India.
He requested the central government to come out with a law vesting more financial powers with the states.
Discussion on the private member's resolution moved by Vaiko will continue on December 13.