File Photo: Former Union Minister and Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken.
The Lieutenant Governor's Office is acting at the behest of the Union Home Ministry but the row with the Delhi government is a ploy by the BJP and AAP to divert people's attention from key issues, Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken has said.
The Aam Aadmi Party government had received the support of the Congress and the Left in its ongoing stand-off with Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung over the bureaucrats' appointment. Mr Maken had earlier said the acting chief secretary - Ms Shakuntala Gamlin -- should have been appointed according to the wishes of the Chief Minister.
But today, there was a slight shift in the party's stance.
"As a former Minister of State for Home Affairs, I can tell you the LG is the Centre. Everything that has been going on is with the full knowledge of the Home Ministry," he said.
But he also claimed there was a ploy in the Centre's insistence that the two parties resolve their differences across a table.
Mr Maken said the BJP will have to face questions when they complete a year in power at the Centre on May 26. "People will ask where the acche din are." Similarly, in peak summer, the Delhi government will have to deal with power demands.
"That's why the two parties are engaged in this turf war to divert attention from real issues," Mr Maken said.
Mr Maken, who has been Speaker of the Delhi assembly and transport minister in the Sheila Dikshit government, said there was no ambiguity with regard to division of power between the Centre and the state.
The LG should appoint the chief secretary only after consulting the chief minister, he said. But in this the LG could not be faulted since Ms Gamlin's name was on the shortlist sent by deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia.
"Instead of separately going to Rashtrapatiji, the Chief Minister and the Lieutenant Governor should have sat across the table resolved the issue," he said. "The Government of NCT Act has been there since 1991 and the assembly was constituted in 1993. Never have we seen this sort of brinkmanship."