Senior leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party are up in arms against the Lieutenant Governor for playing politics over the issue of hoisting of tricolour on August 15 by Cabinet Minister Atishi as recommended by elected Chief Minister of Delhi.
Sharing his views on the issue of hoisting the tricolour on Independence Day in Delhi with the media, senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia said that it is very unfortunate that the elected government in Delhi is prevented from hoisting the flag on the occasion of Independence Day. He said the letter of conman Sukesh from Tihar immediately reaches LG and he also takes action on it, but the letter of the elected Chief Minister does not reach him.
Senior AAP leader Atishi said this is like the British Raj where a new Indian Viceroy is trying to take away the right of an elected government to hoist the flag against the wishes of the people of Delhi.
Addressing media persons at party headquarters here today, senior AAP leader Atishi said we hoist the tricolour on August 15 because on August 15, 1947 was the day when the people of India got the right to rule themselves. Before August 15, 1947, India was ruled by the British, the British used to send a Viceroy who ran the government as per his will. The people of India had no rights in that government, no voice. So, we hoist the flag on August 15 for democracy, for freedom, for the right to have the voice of the people of India heard.
“But today the right of an elected government to hoist the flag is being snatched away. Today it seems in Delhi that a new Viceroy has come who is saying that he will hoist the flag. I want to tell LG that we do not have to hoist the Union Jack on August 15, we have to hoist the tricolour of independent India. It is the right of the people of the country to hoist the tricolour, the right of the people of Delhi, the right of the government elected by the people of Delhi. If the elected government is not allowed to hoist the flag, there can be no bigger proof of dictatorship than this. So, we will see whether the Bharatiya Janata Party stands with dictatorship or democracy,” she said.
In response to a question, Atishi said that the tricolour is hoisted by the elected government, the Chief Minister hoists it as the head of the elected government. But the Chief Minister is currently in judicial custody, he has been arrested in a false case and kept in jail. The Chief Minister has expressed his wish that I, as a minister, should hoist the flag on August 15 in his place.
The senior AAP leader said the chief minister had earlier written a letter to the LG from Tihar, the same Tihar jail from where every letter of Sukesh Chandrashekhar reaches the LG, based on which the LG also orders a CBI inquiry. “But when the letter of the Chief Minister of Delhi goes to LG, the officer (in Tihar jail) is made to say that only personal letters can go out, any kind of official letter cannot go out of the jail. This law is only for Arvind Kejriwal, not for Sukesh Chandrashekhar,” she said.
Atishi said cabinet minister Gopal Rai goes to meet Arvind Kejriwal and Gopal Rai, as General Administration Department (GAD) minister, orders the GAD department that the Chief Minister wishes that Atishi, as a minister, should hoist the flag in his place. “In response to that too, the officer concerned is made to say that no, we do not accept this order. So, this is like the British Raj. A new Indian Viceroy is trying to run the government against the wishes of the people of Delhi, against the wishes of the government elected by the people of Delhi, who is trying to take away the right of an elected government to hoist the flag, all this smacks of dictatorship,” she said.
During a media interaction, Senior AAP Leader and former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said, “It is very unfortunate that such petty politics is being done on a pious occasion like Independence Day. I read in newspapers that there is a big fraudster in jail, his name is Sukesh, if he writes a letter then the Tihar administration submits it to Lieutenant Governor (LG) Saab and LG Saab also takes action.”
The senior AAP leader further added that when the elected Chief Minister of Delhi writes a letter then LG Saab tells the Tihar administration, to beware of sending a letter written by the Chief Minister of Delhi, and when Sukesh writes a letter then the entire LG office must be waiting, ‘every second is taking a toll, where is the letter of our Sukesh ji’? The LG Saab who has so much love for Sukesh Ji’s letter and believes every word of it to be true, that LG Saab should have once inquired for a letter from Delhi’s elected Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Manish Sisodia affirmed, “Independence Day is a great occasion, if a sitting CM of Delhi has written a letter about it, then LG Saab’s office should have made a call to the DG’s office and asked that he has heard that CM Arvind Kejriwal has written a letter, where is it? Send it to me. But he did not do that, because he is neither concerned with independence nor the country, his beloved are people like Sukesh Ji.”