Home Ministry Sacks 9 Advisers to AAP Ministers, Says Appointments Not Approved

New Delhi: A month after the Delhi High Court restored 20 AAP MLAs to the Assembly after being disqualified over the ‘Office of Profit’ row, nine top advisers to the Delhi government, including senior leader Atishi Marlena, were sacked by the Union Home Ministry on Tuesday, saying the appointments were not sanctioned by the Finance Ministry.

Launching a scathing attack on the Centre over the issue, Deputy CM Manish Sisodia said that the Narendra Modi government's order was a "conspiracy to derail" the "education revolution" in Delhi.

Since no BJP government has been able to deliver anything in education and health sectors, the Centre is trying to paralyse the AAP government, he alleged, adding his adviser Atishi Marlena, who was playing a "vital role" in improving the education system, has been "targeted".

Marlena, who was an adviser to Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, was sacked along with Raghav Chadha, adviser to the Delhi Finance Minister, Arunoday Prakash, media adviser to Deputy CM, Amardeep Tiwari, media adviser to Law Minister and Rajat Tiwari, adviser to PWD Minister.

“Posts on which the appointees are officiating are not in the list of posts approved for the Ministers and Chief Minister of Govt. of NCT of Delhi. Further, no prior approval of the Central Government has been taken for creation of said posts in which these persons have been appointed on co-terminus basis,” a part of the order by the MHA on Tuesday read.

Chadha defended himself by posting a picture of his terms of appointment that showed that he was drawing only a salary of Re 1. “Where exactly is the MHA sacking me from? Here are the terms of appointment for those who wish to see. Thanks,” Chadha tweeted.

He added, “Impressive diversionary tactics by the MHA, at the behest of BJP. To divert attention from spate of rapes, cash crunch etc. an opportune time to rake up non issues with AAP like retrospective sacking for a post I held for 45 days in 2016 for a paltry sum of Rs.2.50/-.”

The removal order has been cleared by L-G Anil Baijal.