The Supreme Court’s unanimous verdict in favour of the Arvind Kejriwal government has settled the constitutional question of who controls the bureaucracy of the Delhi government: it is the elected Aam Aadmi Party government of Delhi.
After eight excruciating years of a fiercely fought battle, the judiciary has restored the democratic principle on which our country works—the will of the people is supreme, and it is expressed through its elected representatives. Even as the legal question is settled and defenders of democracy can and should celebrate, this verdict is a moment for us to examine the role of the two major players in this battle. One, the Narendra Modi government, which inflicted its unilateral usurping of power upon the people of Delhi. And two, Delhi’s bureaucrats who in some cases were victims of the Centre’s power games, and in others, wilful participants in the mockery of democracy. These are not issues for the courts to resolve, they need to be litigated in the court of public opinion and perhaps, electorally as well.
BJP’s pointless battle
It is easy to get lost in the complex arguments around the interpretations of Article 239AA, from which the Delhi government derives its powers. It is also easy to treat this as yet another example of a bitter political competition between the AAP and BJP. But this dispute is neither legal nor political or ideological. It was borne out of the BJP’s inability to accept defeat. It was a coup perpetrated in broad daylight. When former US president Donald Trump lost, he sent his supporters to storm the Capitol to retain his power—unsuccessfully. When PM Modi lost to Kejriwal in Delhi, his government unilaterally announced that actually all powers will still be exercised by his party’s government, despite having lost 67-3 the first time and 62-8 the second time. This is the only framing of the dispute that truly goes to the heart of the conflict.
The truth is that no matter what one’s political views are, the idea that responsibility and power go together should be glaringly obvious, the most common sense view of government. No organisation can function without this setup. Can Shekhar Gupta as the editor of ThePrint be held responsible for the performance of the organisation if he exercised no power over deciding which journalist will report on which issues, take disciplinary action against erring members of his team and reward high performers? Why did it take the full proceedings of a High Court bench and multiple Supreme Court benches for the outcome to be the most obvious one possible? Could this truly have been so complicated that it required the judiciary to weigh in? Certainly not.
Modi’s insistence on usurping power that people have explicitly given Kejriwal has cost us all very dearly. To begin with, this legal proceeding wasted the valuable time of our senior most judicial forums. It has been a significant drain on the media discourse, taking space away from important policy debates. It has sapped Kejriwal and the AAP of political capital and energy. But most importantly, the people of Delhi have borne the cost of having a disempowered state government. The fact that the AAP government was able to deliver on some important policy goals despite such a hostile environment is a testament to the leadership’s ability to push its agenda through. But the number of projects and decisions that were scuttled by this pointless battle waged by the BJP too comprise a long list.
Need for administrative overhaul
Supreme Court’s verdict is also a moment for Delhi’s bureaucracy to reflect on how it responded to the Modi government’s power grab. Undoubtedly, there was pressure on them to toe the Centre’s line and deny their cooperation with the elected state government. While one can understand that in situations where the state and Centre were at loggerheads on policy issues, it may have been necessary to pick the big bully’s side. But can that truly explain every instance of dereliction of duty?
In the affidavit filed by the AAP government in this matter, it was revealed that an environment secretary of the government skipped 20 meetings called by the environment minister to review preparedness for the pollution season. Kejriwal has alleged several times that some officers have blocked salary payments to doctors and paramedics at Mohalla clinics. Some officers would not respond to phone calls from ministers for days on end, and then suddenly take leave keeping critical work pending indefinitely. Even as some brave officials stood their ground and cooperated with the elected government, others went out of their way to disobey directions that were clearly and obviously in the public interest.
It was the design of India’s founding fathers that the permanent executive be responsible to carry out the direction of the executive and accountable to the elected legislature. If a Delhi resident approaches the water minister with a problem in their area, the minister must have the power to direct the CEO of the Delhi Jal Board—an IAS officer—to ensure it is resolved. If an MLA wants to question the implementation of an education policy for which a budget has been passed by the Delhi Assembly, they must have the ability to summon the education secretary—also an IAS officer—and demand answers from them. Failure to respond to public needs must result in consequences.
Left to its own devices, the permanent bureaucracy does not have an intrinsic interest in responding to the needs and aspirations of the people. This is not an argument about their competence or effectiveness as professionals, it is one about motivations. The political control over the bureaucracy is a function of democracy, not its fault as some would like to believe. Kejriwal has already announced that he aims to overhaul the administrative system in Delhi after the verdict to make it responsive, compassionate, accountable and also a lean, mean machine. He has promised to promote performers and punish laggards. As it should happen—and should have been happening since the beginning.
The Modi government should not be under the delusion that they will get away with the crime of keeping Delhi away from a truly democratic government for eight years. The BJP stands exposed for taking such a stand against Delhi and one can only hope it pays for its excesses electorally. The Supreme Court’s verdict is the first step towards delivering justice to the people of Delhi. It needs to be followed up by fixing accountability on the doors of the BJP and errant public officials.
Akshay Marathe was a member of the AAP govt’s education task force and is currently studying public policy at Harvard University. Views are personal.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)