Aam Aadmi Party convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal met Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary and veteran political leader Sitaram Yechury at the Leftist outfit’s headquarters at Gopalan Bhavan in the capital to solicit support in the Rajya Sabha when the Centre’s recent controversial ‘transfer-posting’ ordinance is presented as a bill.
Throwing his weight behind AAP against the ordinance, Yechury said, “As far as the CPI(M) is concerned, we opposed the ordinance on May 20 itself, a day after the ordinance was issued. We said that this is against our Constitution and democracy. And, it also amounts to contempt of court—that the court has given a verdict and you are reversing that in this manner through an ordinance. Federalism is one of the foundational pillars of our Constitution. The Modi sarkar is destroying the federal structure, the relationship between the Centre and the states, and there have been assaults of many kinds on the rights of the state. And the brazen manner in which this ordinance was brought is a violation of the Constitution and we are opposing it. And whenever there is an opportunity to vote against it in the Rajya Sabha or elsewhere, we are committed to voting against it.”
The central government promulgated an ordinance this month to create the National Capital Civil Services Authority to decide on postings and transfers of bureaucrats and make the lieutenant governor the final arbiter over such matters. It effectively took away the elected Delhi government’s executive and legislative power over services awarded to it by a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court after an eight-year-long battle with the Centre.
Sitaram Yechury, who played a key role in drafting the common minimum programme of the UPA 1 government in 2004, had a special message for all non-NDA opposition parties. “We appeal to all other parties, this is not about political parties—CPI(M), AAP, or Congress. The issue is to fight the assault on the constitutional structure of the country. If we don’t do that, we run the risk of not just an autocratic government at the Centre, but even worse, a regime with fascist tendencies,” he said.
He went on to target opposition parties who have not yet declared their opposition to the ordinance. “We appeal to all, especially to those parties who are yet to oppose this ordinance. We appeal to these parties—today this has happened with the Delhi government, tomorrow it can happen to our own state government. It can happen with the Rajasthan government, or Himachal Pradesh where Congress is ruling, or regional parties that are ruling in Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, or Tamil Nadu. All these governments face a threat. To destabilise governments of opposition parties, the Modi government can go to any length, and this has to be stopped,” he said.
The veteran Marxist leader has a special word for the Congress party. “We appeal to all, especially the largest opposition party, the Congress, to come forward and support opposition parties in this endeavour to safeguard the Constitution and fight against those who are launching an assault on our Constitution,” said Yechury.
It must be noted that the Congress party, the largest in the opposition space, is yet to take a decision on whether or not to support arch-rival AAP on the Centre’s May 19 ordinance. The grand old party’s state units in Delhi and Punjab have been vocal in their opposition to any support for AAP. However, the party’s top brass is yet to take a call on this.
Four days ago, on May 26, Kejriwal had also sought an appointment with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi and is still waiting to hear back. When asked about the opposition of some leaders of the Congress, the AAP chief said, “From whatever I have read in newspapers, their leaders are saying they will not support Kejriwal—Kejriwal is this, Kejriwal is that. However, this is not about Kejriwal. This is about the country’s democracy, the insult of the people of Delhi, the Constitution. I would request them to forget about Kejriwal, let them not support Kejriwal. However, standing with the people of Delhi against the Modi government as they have been insulted and robbed of their rights…today they have done this with Delhi…As Yechury Sahab said, tomorrow, if they bring such an ordinance against the Rajasthan government, we will oppose it.”
While the AAP delegation consisted of its Rajya Sabha members Sanjay Singh and Raghav Chadha and Delhi minister Atishi, former CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, and politburo members Brinda Karat, MA Baby, and A Vijayaraghavan were part of the meeting. Sources say talks between the two parties were restricted to the issue of the Delhi ordinance and did not delve into matters of ‘opposition unity’ ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Yechury pointed out that his party had already taken a stand against the ordinance. On May 25, the party’s mouthpiece, People’s Democracy, called upon the Supreme Court to nullify the ordinance and political parties to unite against it. “The Supreme Court as the custodian of the Constitution will have to step in to nullify this draconian measure. At the political level, the entire opposition should unitedly oppose the ordinance when it is sought to be legislated through in Parliament,” it said. Taking special note of the Congress, the CPI(M) mouthpiece said, “The Congress party should stop dithering about its stand. The animosity towards Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP cannot determine its position. This is not about any individual leader or a single party – this is a basic attack on democracy and federalism.”
Thanking the CPI(M), Kejriwal said, “I came to seek the support of Sitaram Yechury ji, his team, CPI(M), for us in the Rajya Sabha. And I thank him from the bottom of my heart that he has expressed support for the people of Delhi.”
Since April 21, the AAP convener and Delhi chief minister has travelled to West Bengal, Maharashtra, and Telangana, galvanising the support of opposition parties to vote against the bill when it is introduced in the Rajya Sabha. He has already met Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, former Maharashtra CM and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, former union minister and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, and Telangana CM and Bharat Rashtra Samithi chief K Chandrashekar Rao. His refrain has been the same: “If all the non-BJP parties come together, this bill can be defeated, and that is why I am meeting party leaders one after the other, asking for their support. When this bill is brought inside Parliament, they may stand with the people of Delhi, and get justice for the people of Delhi. This is a betrayal of the people of Delhi.”
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