New Delhi: In a sign of brewing tussle, Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena on Tuesday wrote to CM Arvind Kejriwal refuting his deputy Manish Sisodia's charge of favouring the BJP and urged him to advice his ministers against making "misleading" assertions.
Saxena was reacting to a letter by the deputy chief minister wherein he accused the LG of "bulldozing the law" to favour the BJP in connection with allowing the Anti Corruption Branch to probe the alleged irregularities in the construction of seven temporary hospitals during the Covid pandemic.
According to Delhi government sources, granting permission for enquiry under the Prevention of Corruption Act does not fall under the purview of "services" and is within the jurisdiction of elected government.
"It is both sad and surprising to note that vide the above letter, the deputy chief minister has made factually and legally incorrect statements on the subject matter while unnecessarily politicising a desirable administrative action," Saxena wrote in the letter to Kejriwal.
He reminded the chief minister of their agreement over "zero tolerance" against corruption, that was reached during their meetings every Friday, and sough his cooperation in doing so.
"In the interest of good governance, I would further urge you to advise your ministers to refrain from such unproductive and poorly evidenced assertions, which are both misleading and obstructive in nature," he wrote.
Sisodia had asked under whose "pressure" Saxena had approved investigation by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) over a year old complaint when it was rejected by his predecessor Anil Baijal as "frivolous and baseless".
The Lieutenant Governor said the ACB is yet to probe the alleged irregularities in the matter and the case was never closed as claimed by Sisodia.
"The assertion of Deputy Chief Minister that the matter was closed by my predecessor after conducting thorough inquiry appears strange. The notings in the file bear out the fact that the case was never closed," he said.
"Needless to mention that such unverified claims and assertions by Hon'ble Deputy CM are unwarranted and appear to be an attempt to mislead the general public on this issue," he said.