New Delhi: Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday accused the BJP-led Centre of “misusing its control over officers” through the “services department” to target the AAP and its leaders in false cases.
Addressing a press conference following the issuance of a notice to AAP to pay Rs 163.62 crore for its political advertisements allegedly published in the garb of government ads, Sisodia said even advertisements of BJP chief ministers were published in Delhi’s newspapers.
Sisodia said it was alleged that since these ads were published outside Delhi, their cost should be recovered from AAP.
“Is it a crime to give ads outside one’s state? Every state government gives ads outside their state. You can see so many hoardings of (Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister) Yogi Adityanath, (Haryana Chief Minister) ML Khattar, (Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister) Shivraj Singh Chauhan and so many other CMs all across Delhi. You can see full-page ads of other state governments published in the Delhi edition of newspapers almost every day.
“If it is a crime, then money spent by their governments should also be recovered from the BJP or the Congress. Did their officers issue recovery notices to their own CMs? No,” he said.
Calling it a “mischievous and frivolous notice”, Sisodia said no officer had the courage to send such a notice to the chief minister in other states.
“In Delhi, because the LG (Lt Governor VK Saxena) controls the Services (department), he pressurises officers to issue such notices against their own ministers and the CM. Today, in Delhi, officers are not working on public services like water, electricity, education etc but most of the time, most of the officers are busy in such useless activities,” he alleged. Stressing that it was extremely important that control over officers lay with the elected government, he said the BJP had exercised “unconstitutional control over the officers of the Delhi government through the Central government for the last seven years”.
“The BJP has been constantly and unconstitutionally misusing the officers,” he said and added that “the notice is an example of how the BJP has been misusing its power to serve its political agenda”.
Alleging that IAS officer Alice Vaz was threatening Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at the behest of the BJP to pay Rs 164 crore within 10 days, he said they would try to take action against the AAP chief if he (Kejriwal) did not.
Vaz is the Delhi government’s Directorate of Information and Publicity Secretary.
Sisodia said the people of Delhi elected Kejriwal with an overwhelming majority to get Delhi government officials to work for the citizens of Delhi — to build schools and hospitals.
“They gave him a mandate to get work done for the poor and for the greater progress of Delhi. But the BJP is controlling these officers in an unconstitutional manner and is misusing them for their political vendetta against Arvind Kejriwal,” he said.
Sisodia alleged that the BJP was not allowing the officers to work. He added that if the officials were working for the public, it forced them to stop and used them to target Kejriwal and his ministers.
“This is an illegitimate use of their illegitimate control over the elected government. This is also the reason that the BJP has unlawfully occupied the service department of the Delhi government so that it can misuse them and not allow the chief minister to work by sending such notices through officials,” he said.
Sisodia said the BJP should stop misusing the officials.
“In a democracy, the elected government has the power to get the officials to work. That’s why the BJP should respect democracy and stop targeting the elected government by illegitimately misusing officials,” he added.
The recovery notice comes a month after Saxena directed the Delhi chief secretary to recover Rs 97 crore from the AAP for political advertisements it published under the veneer of government ads.
The notice issued by the Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP) also includes the interest on the amount and makes it mandatory for the ruling party in Delhi to pay the whole amount within 10 days, the sources said on Wednesday.
“If the AAP convener fails to do so, all consequential legal action including attachment of the properties of the party shall be taken in time bound manner, as per the earlier order of the Delhi LG,” a source said.
While Rs 99,31,10,053 (Rs 99.31 crore) is on account of the principal amount incurred on political advertisements till March 31, 2017, the remaining Rs 64,30,78,212 (Rs 64.31 crore) is on account of penal interest on this amount.
The Delhi government’s Directorate of Audit has also deputed a special audit team for conducting an audit of all such political advertisements after March 31, 2017, the sources said.
In a letter to the Directorate of Information and Publicity, AAP National Secretary Pankaj Kumar Gupta has called the demand of Rs 163.62 crore “arbitrary” and “perverse” and sought the copies of advertisements whose costs were to be recovered.