With President Pranab Mukherjee rejecting the Bill to exclude the post of Parliamentary Secretary from the office of profit, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is 'scared' of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) while blaming him for posing an obstacle in the Delhi Government's functioning.
Kejriwal told ANI that Prime Minister Modi is not yet able to digest the AAP's splendid win in the Delhi Assembly polls.
"Modi ji is trying to disqualify all these people. Modi ji says that Sonia Gandhi ji isn't allowing the Parliament to function because she cannot digest defeat. I want to ask Modi ji, is he not allowing the Delhi Government to function because he is unable to digest defeat in Delhi?" said Kejriwal.
"Why is Modi ji only behind disqualifying Delhi's Parliament Secretary? Why not Haryana, Nagaland, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Gujarat and others as they have Parliament Secretaries too because Narendra Modi is scared of AAP," he added.
Kejriwal claimed that he took the decision as his MLAs were highly qualified to handle additional responsibility.
"We saw that many MLAs are qualified. They have more potential and we wanted to use that. We gave them extra responsibility. We are not giving them money. It's written that they will get no perk or remuneration from the government. If someone is doing so what is the problem of Prime Minister Modi," he added.
AAP legislator Somnath Bharti echoed similar sentiments and said the Modi government is scared of the AAP and unhappy due to the Delhi Government's competent work.
"The decision being new would surely face political opposition by the Modi government because Modi sarkar today is scared and unhappy only because of the Aam Aadmi Party. Politically, if today Modi government is scared of any political party then it is AAP," said Bharti.
"It is a political decision. I think it is unfortunate but then if Modi government has taken this decision we will deal with it and there is no disqualification," he added.
Bharti said the President as per the Constitution acts on the advice of the Council of Ministers.
"So, it is not the honorable President, who has denied, refused or returned the bill," he added while asserting that this was a desperate attempt on the Centre's part to trouble the AAP.
The Delhi Government Bill to exclude the post of Parliamentary Secretary from the office of profit has been refused assent by the President, raising questions over the fate of 21 AAP MLAs, who have been appointed to the posts.
The refusal puts a question mark on the membership of 21 AAP MLAs, who have been appointed Parliamentary Secretaries.
The AAP Government had sought an amendment to the Delhi Members of Legislative Assembly (Removal of Disqualification) Act, 1997 through which it had sought "retrospective" exemption for the parliamentary secretaries from disqualification provisions.
Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung forwarded the Bill to the Centre, which in turn was sent to the President with comments.
