Following the Supreme Court verdict on Services, the Delhi BJP said it respected it but voiced apprehension of its abuse by the Arvind Kejriwal-led government to create “a new industry” of transfers and postings of officials in the capital. The Delhi Congress welcomed the ruling and said it would put an end to the “shadow boxing and blame-games” between the L-G and the AAP-led Delhi government. Senior AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh called it a significant blow to the “BJP-LG’s dictatorial nexus” which had been “strangling democracy in Delhi”. He alleged: “Arvind Kejriwal’s battle was never personal; it represented a fight against the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who sought to punish the two crore citizens of Delhi for democratically electing a party and leader of their choice.” BJP’s IT Cell incharge Amit Malviya tweeted that the existing position has only been restated in the verdict. He added that while officers would be in administrative and supervisory control of the Delhi government, “it will be permissible for the Parliament to make a law changing this position”. Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva alleged: “Chief Minister Kejriwal, by saying that he has not been able to do any work for the last 8 years, has made it clear that his claims of education and health revolution and all such things are just a bundle of lies.” “What Kejriwal was yearning for over the last eight years, today he has found it; now he will make transfer-posting an industry. now, instead of the quality of government officials, Kejriwal will pay attention to those who are submissive to him and his ministers,” Sachdeva also alleged. Delhi Congress president Anil Kumar Chaudhary sought to advice the Delhi government to concentrate on good governance instead of “stooping to low levels for petty politics” and the BJP’s Centre not to create “unnecessary hurdles” to override the functioning of the elected government. “People have been suffering due to disturbed public transport, air and water pollution, and rising garbage mountains. the Kejriwal government should focus its energy on addressing these issues instead of indulging in empty rhetoric, which does not solve the problems of Delhi, as only concrete actions by the Delhi government can improve the quality of people’s life,” he said. On his part, Singh, too, sought cooperation from the Centre: “We urge the Modi government to at least now adopt a cooperative attitude and refrain from creating new plans to obstruct the actions of Arvind Kejriwal.”
