Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal attacked the Narendra Modi-led government on Wednesday, asking the BJP and Congress why they were questioning the AAP government for appointing MLAs as parliamentary secretaries when they had made similar appointments in the past.
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Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal reacted sharply to the development and targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that he does not respect democracy and was only fearful of the AAP.
Patra said the issue of disqualification of 21 MLAs lies before the President and the Election Commission.
He said it is a “well-settled” principle of law that one is considered to be holding office of profit even if he does not draw the emoluments that come with it.
21 AAP MLAs are facing possible disqualification as the President of India Pranab Mukherjee refuses to assent to a Bill proposed by the Delhi Government. This was basically refusal to give assent to the Delhi government Bill to exclude the post of Parliamentary Secretary from the office of profit.
At present 14 bills of the Delhi government are pending with the Union government and these are at various stages of consultation. The conference took place following the controversy over the appointment of 21 AAP MLAs as parliamentary secretaries.
“The Kejriwal Government already increased the salaries of his MLAs by 400 per cent”.
A parliamentary secretary works as a Minister of State or a junior minister in the department assigned. “And during the same period Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan were thrown out of the party”, Mr Maken said insisting that AAP distributed these posts to keep these people with them.
Through the amendment bill, the AAP government wanted “retrospective” exemption for the Parliamentary Secretaries from disqualification provision. He had also said that they were prepared for bypolls.
Delhi’s transport minister Gopal Rai resigned on Tuesday citing bad health.
He asked Kejriwal not to make the President’s decision a “political issue”.
Tracing the genesis of the tradition, Kejriwal said Delhi had three Parliamentary Secretaries in 1953 – HKL Bhagat, Kumari Shanta Vashisht and Shiv Charan Dasgupta, appointed by first CM of Delhi Choudhury Braham Prakash.
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Another MLA said that the party has told the MLAs not to fear as legal options are available.
