Kejriwal Develops Cold Feet on Forming Govt.

Saturday, December 14 was the day of dithering and confusion. After meeting Lt. Governor of Delhi, the Aam Admi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal developed cold feet when asked to form Government. Promising the moon was one thing and delivering the moon entirely different. He realized that he would get exposed once he heads the government and not able to come to the expectations of the people who voted for him and his Party. The best thing to come out of the situation for Kejriwal and his team was to run away from the responsibility of governance.

What he did? Put such conditions that would not be acceptable to the Congress which wrote to the Lt Governor of the support of its 8 elected MLAs to AAP for forming the government. As a clever move Kejriwal forwarded the same set of conditions to the BJP President Rajnath Singh. One may ask, why Kejriwal and his Party should seek sort of undertaking from the Congress and the BJP that the two parties would support whatever he decides as the chief minister. If he accepts the invitation and assume office of Delhi chief minister, he does not require support of the MLAs of the two supporting parties on the floor of the House since most of his terms of conditions do not require any legislation. For instance, selling electricity and giving water at reduced price or for that matter not using red bacon lights are executive decisions that any government in power can take.

But the design of Kejriwal and his team is to discredit the rivals and tell the people that the two national parties are not ready to support the agenda of ‘aam admi’. By playing this card he hopes to enlarge his support base and expects to do better if and when elections are held for Delhi Assembly and in elections for Lok Sabha just a few months away from now.

Kejriwal is greatly mistaken in his fond hope. The best course for him would be to form the government and implement his agenda as promised in the poll manifesto. He would have to prove his majority within specified period as decided by the Lt. Governor. In  the trust vote if the Congress would have either supported or absented at the time of voting, the Kejriwal government would survive and he has the opportunity to preside over and run a minority government. But his problem is not this. Kejriwal is scared of taking the responsibility and do the job he and his Party were voted for since the single largest group, the BJP declined to form Government.

The Amm Admi Party has asked for 10 days time to decide whether or not to form Government. With a senior lawyer like Prashant Bhushan by his side, Kejriwal and his Party should know that the present Assembly ends on December 17, 2013 and the new House has to be constituted by December 18, 2013. Failing to do so would automatically lead to President’s rule and a fresh election. Perhaps, the Aam Admi Party has made up its mind to force fresh elections on the people of Delhi that goes against the spirit of democracy.

In an era of coalition governments, if political parties begin taking stand that unless given clear majority they would not join hands with other to form the governments, then there would have been no governments at the Centre since 1977. The Indian Constitution does not have any provision of Central or President’s rule at the Centre.

I suggest Prashant Bhusan to offer orientation and refresher course in practicing Indian Constitution to his Party colleagues and Kejriwal in particular.

~R. K. Sinha