Sacked Dhir speaks out: Speaker must be impartial, I couldn’t cooperate with AAP

Speaking to Newsline at his office in Jangpura on Monday, Dhir said, “I was impartial in my role as Speaker and this could have been a factor. The Speaker’s position is a constitutional one. Anyway, even if I cooperated, how could I do it when they resigned from government in just 49 days?” he said.

“It is as if they want to drive on the wrong side of the road. The law is the law and rules are rules. For instance, look at what happened in the case when Arvind refused to pay the bail bond in court. Why did he have to do that? Eventually, he had to pay.”

Dhir said he was “deeply hurt” by news of his exclusion from the candidate list being revealed in the media, and rejected suggestions that his performance as Jangpura MLA had been poor.

“Projects over Rs 3 crore have been sanctioned in my tenure. I was among the few MLAs whose ‘report cards’ were made and shared by the party in social media. Exclusion has come as a shock.,” the outgoing Speaker said.

Pointing to sabotage from within, Dhir said when he approached the party’s leadership, including Kejriwal and Sisodia, he was told that a survey conducted by an external feedback team (see report below) had put him in third place in his constituency.

“For several months, I have been telling people within the party that there is a group within the AAP in Jangpura that has wanted me out, because I was not letting them have their way. I told them that this survey should not be trusted. No one in the area knows when this survey was conducted,” Dhir said.

Dhir also joined a band of present and previous AAP members who criticised the lack of transparency within the party and said decisions are taken in a “closed room”.

“Only four or five people in the party take decisions behind closed doors. Many AAP MLAs — Harish Khanna, Rajesh Garg and others — have raised concerns about this. The party has come up because of the contribution of its 28 MLAs. The party should be proud that nobody, especially the Speaker, did not get bought. But what did we get in return for our service?” Dhir said.

While he said he was still considering his political future, Dhir did not deny he would join the BJP. “I know the issues of the area and people are happy with my work. Will see when the time comes,” he said.