Elected min should hoist tricolour, politics over it unfortunate: Sisodia

Amid a controversy over who hoists the flag at the Delhi government's Independence Day ceremony here, senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia Tuesday assailed Lt Governor V K Saxena, saying there should be no problem with an elected minister doing it.

The Delhi government's General Administration Department (GAD) has refused to comply with its minister Gopal Rai's direction to make arrangements for Education Minister Atishi to hoist the national flag as per a letter by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to the LG.

However, the LG office has maintained that no letter from Kejriwal, who is in judicial custody, has been received. Tihar jail authorities have said the CM's letter was not sent to the LG because it was not permitted according to prison rules.

Sisodia said it is "very unfortunate" that "such petty politics" is being done on the auspicious occasion of Independence Day.

"I read in the papers that when a conman Sukesh writes letter, the Tihar administration duly submits it to the LG office. The LG too promptly takes action on it. But, when the Delhi chief minister writes a letter, the LG asks Tihar officials not to send it to him," said Kejriwal's former deputy.

The LG office should ideally have asked the Tihar Jail director general's office to send Chief Minister Kejriwal's letter, he said. "But, they have nothing to do with independence or the country. People like Sukesh are beloved to them."

The elected government or any minister should hoist the flag, he asserted. "I do not see any difficulty in it."

"But, expecting democratic, constitutional (norms) from the LG and his boss is meaningless. Only dictatorship is expected from them and that is what we do," Sisodia charged.

Chief Minister Kejriwal, who would have hoisted the flag at the Delhi government's Independence Day function, is currently lodged in the Tihar jail in an excise policy-related case.