Opinion: How it is turning out to be a bureaucracy vs. Kejriwal fight in Delhi
Anshu Prakash and Kejriwal
Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash asked Kejriwal to apologise for manhandling and decided not to attend any meeting called by Delhi Government until alleged MLS's get punished.
In the last 24 hours, things have dramatically changed in Delhi. Delhi's Chief Secretary alleged that he was beaten by Aam Aadmi Party MLA's, assaulting him in front of the Chief Minister. After this incident, it has turned into a battle betweenbureaucracy and Kejriwal government. On Tuesday, Delhi police filed an FIR after getting a written complaint from Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash.
Within few hours, the Delhi police arrested AAP's Deoli MLA Prakash Jarwal. Police had also beenlooking for another MLA named Amanthullah Khan, from Okhla, but failed to get him. But by the afternoon,Amanthullah Khan surrendered in Jamia Nagar police station.
After taking both the MLA's into custody, the police produced them in the court. Delhi Police wanted two days custody for both of them but the court dismissed the police's plea for custodial interrogation of AAP MLAs Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal. Delhi court rejected the plea for police custody, saying the two legislators were ready to cooperate and join the investigation.
While all these things were happening, Delhi IAS, DANICs and DASS association sought time from President Ramnath Singh. The Association wanted to brief him about the incident and wanted him to look into this matter. But they couldn't get time from President yesterday. But association hopes to get time on Thursday. Apart from this, the association also held a meeting with all his stakeholders in Chanakyapuri.
In this meeting, many retired and serving Delhi Government IAS and DANICS officers took part. At the meeting, all the stakeholders decided not to attend any meeting called by the Delhi government till Arvind Kejriwal apologises for the incident and action is taken against the MLAs involved. Same was decided at past meetings too. Meanwhile, Delhi IAS Association is getting support from many state IAS Associations that include Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka etc.
Tuesday, after this alleged attack on Chief Secretary, a meeting was called in Delhi Secretariat. In this meeting, the chief secretary and all the other officers decided to report this matter. The IAS officers association also met Home Minister Rajnath Singh and LG Anil Baijal to lodge a protest over the alleged assault. A delegation of IAS, DANICS and subordinate services of Delhi government called on Home Minister Rajnath Singh and termed the alleged manhandling of Prakash a "pre-planned and pre-meditated" attack.
On Wednesday, the IAS association took out a candlelight march at Rajghat to protest the incident in which not only serving IAS, DANICs, and DASS cadre employees participated but many retired officers took part as well.
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)