Supreme Court ruling not a vindication for AAP govt, says Sheila Dikshit
New Delhi: Former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit on Wednesday downplayed the AAP’s victory proclamations by saying that the Supreme Court ruling that the lieutenant-governor is bound by the government’s advice was “not a vindication” for the party as “it has always been so”.
Ms Dikshit, who was the chief minister of Delhi from 1998-2013, said her government may have had differences with the L-G, but there was never any “tussle”. “We may have had differences. When the differences came out, after talking to each other we sorted out those differences,” she said.
Asked if the Supreme Court verdict that the L-G is bound by the government’s advice was a vindication for the AAP, Ms Dikshit said, “It is not a vindication, it has always been so. We also ran a government for 15 years and whatever the Cabinet decided, the L-G used to always agree to that.” She said that the L-G has total control over land and law and order, but beyond that he goes through the advice of the Cabinet.
“I don’t see why it (the matter) should go to the court. There is a constitutional provision, Article 239(AA) in the Constitution.. It says the Union territory, it is all clearly laid down then what is the conflict about. If you want to change that then go to Parliament and say that you want these changes,” Ms Dikshit said.
On her experience of working with different L-G’s for 15 years, Ms Dikshit said, “We had four or five different L-Gs, but did not have confrontation... Because our first job was to govern and not have confrontations.”
On the AAP demand for full statehood for Delhi, she said it has to be decided by Parliament. “But, Delhi being the capital of this country, I have my doubts, we also tried it all three times, but we couldn’t get it either. And I think the reason for that is that because it is the capital city of the country.”
Ms Dikshit, however, said that full statehood was not a prerequisite for good governance, saying whatever “tools” are available are good enough for Delhi to get good governance. She hoped that with the verdict the confrontation would end as it was “very important for Delhi”.
