Delhi LG Vinai Kumar Saxena on Monday wrote a letter to Chief Minister Atishi, expressing objection to AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal calling her a temporary CM. The surprising letter comes amid an intense slugfest between the ruling party AAP and the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the assembly elections 2025.
"I found this very objectionable and I was hurt by it. It was not only an insult to you, but also to your appointee, the President of India and to me as her representative… As a Lieutenant Governor, I am concerned about this level of public discourse and at the same time, I am hurt by the conversation of presenting the full-time Chief Minister of my government as a temporary Chief Minister..." reads the letter.
The LG might have objections to the 'temporary chief minister' term but Atishi herself declared that she will leave the CM post for Kejriwal if AAP retains power. In fact, Atishi, dramatically, left CM's chair empty when she assumed chief minister office, expressing her devotion to Kejriwal on September 23.
Here is the full text of the letter written by the LG to Atishi
Dear Atishi Ji,
- 01. First of all, I send you my best wishes for the upcoming New Year 2025. I wish that you always remain healthy and move ahead on the path of progress.
- 02. I had also congratulated and wished you wholeheartedly on the occasion of your swearing-in as the chief minister, and in the period from then till now, for the first time in my two and a half years of tenure, I have seen a person holding the post of chief minister doing the work of a non-minister. While your predecessor chief minister did not have a single department of the government and neither did he sign files, you took charge of many departments and tried to work on various issues of administration.
- 03. But a few days ago, I found it very objectionable and hurt when your predecessor Chief Minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal publicly declared you as a temporary-makeshift Chief Minister in the media. This was not only an insult to you, but also an insult to your employer Her Excellency the President of India and to me as her representative. The public interpretation of temporary or makeshift chief minister given by Shri Kejriwal has no constitutional provision and it is also a condemnable disregard of the democratic spirit and values enshrined in the Constitution written by Baba Saheb Ambedkar.
- 04. It is well known under what circumstances you were made the chief minister. Whether it is the worsening condition of Yamuna in the last ten years or the acute shortage of drinking water, the issue of mountains of garbage or lack of basic facilities in industrial areas, the poor condition of roads and sewer lines or the crumbling health system, the acute lack of facilities in unauthorized colonies or the hellish life in slums, everyone knows how possible it is for a chief minister, who has been declared temporary and makeshift, to do anything in three-four months. Your leader has also publicly accepted his failures in these areas, but as the Chief Minister, the responsibility for the failures in all these areas will now be considered yours.
- 05. The manner in which Mr. Kejriwal, in your presence, is making unauthorized announcements of schemes for senior citizens and women in the name of the chief minister has tarnished the dignity of the post of the chief minister and the Council of Ministers.
- 06 Recently, two departments of the Delhi Government have issued public notices in the press asking people to be cautious about registrations for non-existent schemes by the former chief minister. This incident is unprecedented and must have been uncomfortable for you.
- 07. However, I also appreciate those departmental officers who, while discharging their duties, presented the correct facts about the misleading schemes and their registrations in the public interest.
- 08. Similarly, without any basis or facts, Mr Kejriwal is publicly saying that the Transport Department and other investigative agencies will investigate against you and send you to jail. This is not only untrue, such statements also indicate that you have no idea about the activities of the departments working under you. In fact, today it was also known through the newspaper that the Additional Chief Secretary of the Transport Department has himself written to you and informed you that neither he nor the Vigilance Department is taking any such action nor was there ever any talk of doing so. He has completely denied the statements of Mr. Kejriwal and called them factless and misleading.
- 09. As the Lieutenant Governor, I am concerned about this level of public discourse and at the same time, I am hurt by the conversation of presenting the full-time Chief Minister of my government as a temporary Chief Minister.
- 10. I wish you a successful and bright future. This letter of mine has been written to you personally, but in the times to come, it should be considered as a document underlining and recording the current context.
