The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has issued a three-line whip to its Rajya Sabha members to be present in the House from July 31 to August 4 as the contentious National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill was due to be taken up for discussion and passage to replace the ordinance that gave the Union government control of the Capital’s bureaucracy.
AAP has called the ordinance “illegal”, “unconstitutional” and a “black law”. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has crisscrossed the country to rally support against the ordinance and hinged AAP’s entry into the National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) grouping on the Congress taking a stand on it.
“All members of [the] Aam Aadmi Party in the Rajya Sabha are requested to kindly remain present in the house from 11am onwards until the adjournment of the house from July 31 to August 4, without fail and support the party stand. This may be treated as most important,” said Sushil Kumar Gupta, the chief whip of AAP in Rajya Sabha.
AAP lawmaker Raghav Chadha on Monday said that the bill is not just against undemocratic and against the topmost court of the country, but also against the 20 million people of Delhi.
“We need to understand that BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] is introducing this bill only because they have not been able to form government in Delhi in the last more than 25 years and since 2013, Delhi voters have given a clear mandate to AAP and Arvind Kejriwal,” said Chaddha.
HT on Monday reported that the bill may be introduced in Lok Sabha before being taken to the Rajya Sabha, where the Opposition has the numbers to contest the proposed law.
A review of the text of the bill, which HT has seen, suggested that it that a contentious provision apparently meant to undo the effect of a May 11 Supreme Court ruling that rested control of Delhi’s administration with the elected government has been dropped. It proposes to change the manner in which tribunal heads are to be appointed in the Capital, assigning some prerogatives to the lieutenant governor now, as opposed to the Ordinance’s approach of the final signatory being the President of India.
On May 19, the ordinance was promulgated, effectively rolling back a Supreme Court constitution bench judgment that handed over control of the Capital’s bureaucracy to Delhi’s elected government in matters other than policing, public order, and land.
The ordinance escalated the tussle between Delhi’s ruling AAP and the Union government-appointed lieutenant governor over control of the Capital.
The Supreme Court on July 20 referred the Delhi government’s petition challenging the ordinance to a constitution bench of five judges. The court’s decision to examine the legality of the ordinance has no bearing on the introduction or passage of the bill.
The legislative agenda for Monday does not mention the bill. The Union government was expected to bring the bill in at any point — even Monday — without prior information in the House, through a supplementary agenda.
The government similarly brought in its resolution to effectively nullify Constitution’s Article 370 that gave Jammu and Kashmir semi-autonomous status and to bifurcate the region into two Union Territories in August 2019 in the Rajya Sabha.
Opposition leaders have said they were prepared for such a move this time and were due to discuss it at the meeting of the INDIA allies.
Tussle between the government and the INDIA grouping over the situation in violence-torn Manipur has rocked Parliament since the monsoon session began on July 20. The Opposition has demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi make a statement on the violence inside Parliament even as Union home minister Amit Shah has agreed to address the matter.
Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla admitted Congress lawmaker Gaurav Gogoi’s no-confidence motion on Wednesday last even as it poses no threat to the government, which has a majority in the Lower House.
The government was confident of the numbers in both Houses. No bill has been stalled in the Rajya Sabha in the government’s second term. The ruling alliance will need either the backing of the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) or the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) to pass the Delhi bill in the Upper House. YSRCP leaders have decided to back the bill.
