Agencies/New Delhi

The Supreme Court yesterday slammed top officials for dragging their feet in forming a new government in the national capital more than eight months after the last administration resigned in chaos.
New Delhi, a city of some 17mn people, has been without a proper government since February, when the capital’s firebrand chief minister Arvind Kejriwal quit to protest against the blocking of an anti-corruption bill.
The Supreme Court urged authorities and political parties to resolve the impasse, saying Delhi residents deserved a democratically elected government.  
“We gave you enough time but nothing has happened so far,” Chief Justice H L Dattu, who heads a five-judge bench, said.
“The people of Delhi have a right to have a democratically elected government and not be ruled by the president,” he said.
“Just before every date of the hearing, some statement is made about the attempt being made for the formation of a government but why things are not being done well before the date of the hearing?” the court asked.
The court was directing its criticism at Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and the national government which have been running the city-state since Kejriwal quit as head of a minority administration.
Kejriwal, an anti-corruption campaigner and a self-described “anarchist,” had only taken power 49 days before his shock resignation.
He has since been demanding fresh elections in the capital, a move opposed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has the biggest number of seats in the Delhi assembly.
Kejriwal’s upstart Aam Aadmi Party lodged a petition in the Supreme Court seeking new polls in the hope of strengthening its fortunes.
The court said yesterday that President Pranab Mukherjee has now instead given his consent to a proposal to invite the BJP to form a new government.
“Suppose Lt Governor is going to invite the largest party (BJP). Are they in a position to form the government?” the court asked, apparently making a reference to the number of legislators the BJP has in the Delhi assembly.
The central government sought to wriggle out of the situation, saying that after putting the Delhi assembly under suspended animation, it had a year’s time to explore the possibilities and the court could not issue any direction restricting the time available to the president in taking the decision.
But the court shot this down.
“Our understanding was to give time to the Lt Governor to decide. If you had told us that we (the government) cannot take a decision, we may have heard the Aam Aadmi Party petition and decided the matter either way,” the court said.
“With greatest respect at our command we feel the government should have taken the decision earlier. All of us know that the matter is pending before the court and time has been given to decide,” said the court, as it began hearing on AAP petition seeking the dissolution of the state assembly.
Kejriwal, a former tax official, and his party sent shockwaves through India’s political establishment when it scored a series of stunning successes during local elections in Delhi last year.
The party rode a wave of support for its ideals of cleaning up corruption, tapping into seething voter anger over graft scandals that plagued the former national Congress Party-led government.
Kejriwal’s resignation left him free to campaign in the national election in May, which the BJP won in a landslide.
Kejriwal disappeared from the spotlight after his party fared poorly in the general elections, and he failed to win a seat from Varanasi now held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.






Related Story