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Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has urged Delhi's Lieutenant Governor (LG) Najeeb Jung and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to "sit together and find a solution" to their turf war.
Singh met President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday, a day after both Jung and Kejriwal approached Rashtrapati Bhavan separately to put across their points of view.
Jung wrote to Kejriwal again this morning, cancelling all appointments and transfers made by the Delhi government in the last four days and asserted he was the sole authority for ordering postings of bureaucrats.
Kejriwal in turn wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging the "central government is trying to run the government unconstitutionally through the Lt Governor. Let the Delhi government function independently".
Jung's letter to Kejriwal said orders directing all files, including those on subjects under the exclusive jurisdiction of the LG, be forwarded to the chief minister, was in violation of the Constitution. Jung declared void all bureaucratic postings made by Kejriwal since May 16. Jung also ordered reinstatement of Anindo Majumdar as principal secretary (services). The Delhi government had removed him from the post and locked him out of his office at the Delhi Secretariat.
In his letter to Modi, Kejriwal said the elected government must have a say about distribution of work to senior officials. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia summoned bureaucrats and informed them about the rules and Acts under which Delhi was administered. The meeting was attended by secretaries, principal secretaries and heads of various departments.
Sources said the bureaucrats were told they should not follow Jung's orders blindly.
Late in the evening, Kejriwal wrote to Jung demanding to know under which rules the LG had issued the orders. Singh maintained the Delhi imbroglio was not discussed during his meeting with Mukherjee. Sources said the Centre had conveyed the attorney-general's opinion on the responsibilities and duties of the LG.
The Delhi government comes under the administrative control of the Union home ministry. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's on Tuesday alleged the people of Delhi had made a costly experiment with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) because governance was not its agenda. The AAP wave in the Delhi Assembly elections earlier this year reduced the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to three seats, embarrassing the ruling party at the Centre. The Congress chief in Delhi, Ajay Maken, hit out at both parties.
"Perhaps it is in the interests of the BJP to rake up this issue because protests over one year of Modi's government are going to take place. They want the people to talk about this crisis. Same with Kejriwal. He does not perhaps want the people to talk about the power and water crisis in Delhi," he said.
