Delhi Service Bill: ‘Decision Out Of Compulsion…’, AAP Warns BJD Of Similar Fate In Odisha

New Delhi/Bhubaneswar: A day after senior Congress leader P Chidambaram took a swipe at Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSR Congress for pledging support to the bill to replace the Delhi Services Ordinance, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday warned the duo that the BJP wouldn’t miss a chance to topple governments in states they rule currently.

“Some parties in the Opposition, including the BJD and YSRCP, among others, are helping the BJP in Parliament. These parties may have their own political considerations. However, whenever the BJP senses a chance to topple their governments in states, they won’t hesitate to do so,” AAP leader and Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj told ANI.

AAP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha further said that there must be some compulsion for them to support the Bill in Parliament. “But they must remember that with the passage of this Bill, not only our houses will be burnt but in future it will spread to other states. If the powers of the Delhi government are snatched then in future the powers of the other state governments will also be snatched by such a dictatorial government,” he said, adding that this is an anti-national Bill and those favouring it will be remembered as anti-nationals.

While Naveen Patnaik has been at the helm of affairs in Odisha for past 23 years, Jaganmohan Raddy-led YSRCP holds the reins of power in Andhra Pradesh.

Hours after the BJD on Tuesday extended its support to the bill, Chidambaran had said that he failed to understand what merit the two regional parties found in the legislation, which gives the Delhi Lieutenant Governor more control over the transfer and posting of officials in the city government, and put forth a series of questions.

“Have the two parties (ruling parties in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh) found merit in the 3-member Authority where the Chief Minister will be just one against two officers appointed by the central government?” he wrote.

“Have they found merit in the provision where the two officers can constitute the quorum and hold a meeting and take decisions without the participation of the Chief Minister?”

“Have they found merit in the provision where the two officers can overrule the Chief Minister?”

“Have they found merit in the provision where the LG can overrule even a unanimous decision of the Authority?”

“Have they found merit in the provision that empowers the central government to define the “powers and duties” of the officers working in the Delhi government to the exclusion of the ministers of the Delhi government?”

“Have the two parties realised that if the Bill were passed, the officers will be the masters and the ministers will be the subordinates?”

Tuesday’s decision of Odisha’s ruling party, which has nine MPs in Rajya Sabha, will help the government cross the halfway mark in the upper house, where the BJP-led NDA does not have full majority on its own. Last week, YSRCP functionaries had said that the party will vote in favour of the government in Rajya Sabha. It too has 9 MPs in the upper house.

However, the BJD’s decision to support the controversial legislation has once again put a question mark over its claim of maintaining equidistance from both the Congress and the BJP. The ruling regional party has been supporting the Narendra Modi dispensation at the Centre in almost all issues since 2019. It had lent its support to the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill, 2019 (Reorganisation Bill) and bills proposing changes to the UAPA and the RTI Acts and criminalising triple talaq. The BJD also nominated Ashwini Vaishnav, to the Rajya Sabha, on the request of Prime Minister and the Home Minister.

While questioning its equidistance policy, OPCC president Sarat Pattanayak on Tuesday alleged that the BJD had surrendered before the BJP and said that the Congress would go to the people over the issue.

“The chief minister always takes a stand that is in the interest of the state and the nation. There can be no doubt about that,” said senior BJD leader and Barachana MLA Amar Prasad Satpathy.