Manish Sisodia alleges that BJP is creating trouble since schemes launched by AAP government have received wide support from Delhiites.
Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia says that the Aam Aadmi Party has full faith in the high court, which is hearing a plea by 20 MLAs against their disqualification by the Election Commission. In an interview with Special Correspondent Rahiba R. Parveen, Sisodia tries to reason why the EC order appears to be biased against his party. Excerpts:
Disqualification of 20 AAP MLAs happened within two days. Did you even think that anything of this magnitude would strike the Delhi government?
Nobody thought that the MLAs chosen by the people of Delhi could be disqualified arbitrarily. It was a mandate for five years. How could you disqualify 20 MLAs on the basis of someone’s complaint, without even listening to them?
The EC claims it has given you ample opportunity to defend yourself? What would you say?
Where was the opportunity? The opportunity the EC is talking about is 23 June (last year) when they decided that they will inform about the hearing to all the parties, which never happened. How can you take such a big decision without fixing the date of hearing.
Neither did it decide on a date nor it passed any order making the 23 June notice null and void. We were banking on what they had said earlier.
AAP MLAS and the Delhi CM have been accusing the EC of bias.
If there is no bias, let the EC explain why it disqualified 20 MLAs without any hearing.
EC says seven hearings happened and explained why they call it an ‘office of profit’ issue.
They are lying. The so-called hearings never took place. The case was never discussed on merit by the Election Commission. Discussion was stuck on whether or not Congress would be a party in the case and whether a hearing would happen at all. Only on 23 June, it was decided that there would be a hearing and date would be given to discuss the office of profit. There must be a reason for this hasty decision.
The notification issued by our government on 13 March 2015 clearly mentions that the parliamentary secretaries will not draw any remuneration or any perks of any kind. If they do not get anything, then what is the problem? Had there been a hearing, we could have presented this notification before EC.
The EC claims that since parliamentary secretaries have held the position of authority, they can influence the decision making.
Where do you find ‘office of profit’? There is a law for office of profit and there are orders by the Supreme Court defining office of profit. In Jaya Bachchan’s case, pecuniary benefit was proved since it involved payment of Rs 3,500.
Pravin Kumar was my parliamentary secretary for education department whom I gave an assignment of visiting 40 schools per month and talk to parents, teachers and students. Does this work amount to ‘office of profit’? They (EC) are making rubbish arguments.
Sonia Gandhi took a moral position in 2006 and resigned as MP after facing a similar charge. Why can’t AAP take such a stand?
I don’t see any moral angle here since AAP MLAs have been chosen by the common people of Delhi. So, why should they resign? The BJP’s plan is to stop the developmental work happening in Delhi.
There has been no increase in electricity charges in Delhi in the past three years unlike in the BJP-ruled states. BJP is also responsible for shutting of government schools in states it rules but we are making government schools better. Even our health schemes are becoming popular. So, BJP is naturally remorseful.
People are now questioning: if a smaller party like AAP can work so much, why can’t BJP. And they (BJP) have no answers for this
AAP had accused the chief election commissioner of acting at the behest of PM Modi. Are you now casting aspersions also on the President of India, who passed the EC order?
Raising questions is different from making accusations and our questions have a solid base. The same issue has happened in Haryana with four of their MLAs. Why has the EC not taken a decision there if it is not biased? Chhattisgarh has 11 MLAs facing the same charges, why no decision has been taken?
Are you ready to fight elections if the need arises?
We are never scared of going back to the people. We are ready for any election if it happens.