ന്യൂഡല്ഹി: ജന്ലോക്പാല് ബില് അവതരിപ്പിക്കാന് കഴിയാതിരുന്നതിനെ തുടര്ന്ന്
ഡല്ഹി മുഖ്യമന്ത്രി അരവിന്ദ് കെജരിവാള് രാജിവച്ചു. രാജിക്കത്ത് ഡല്ഹി ലെഫ്.
ഗവര്ണര്ക്ക് അയച്ചതായി ആം ആദ്മി നേതാക്കള് അറിയിച്ചു. ജന് ലോക്പാല് ബില്
സഭയില് അവതരിപ്പിക്കാന് കഴിയാതിരുന്നാല് രാജിവയ്ക്കുമെന്ന് നേരത്തെ
പ്രഖ്യാപിച്ചിരുന്നു.
കോണ്ഗ്രസും ബിജെപിയും ഒന്നിച്ച് ബില്ലിനെതിരായി
രംഗത്ത് വന്നതാണ് ജന്ലോക്പാല് ബില് നിയമസഭയില് അവതരിപ്പിക്കാനുള്ള ആംആദ്മി
സര്ക്കാരിന്റെ ശ്രമം പരാജയപ്പെട്ടത്. കോണ്ഗ്രസും ബിജെപിയുമുള്പ്പെടെ 42
എംഎല്എമാര് എതിര്ത്തപ്പോള് ആംആദ്മി എംഎല്എ മാരായ 27 പേര് മാത്രമാണ്
അനുകൂലിച്ചത്. ഇതോടെ ബില് അവതരിപ്പിക്കുന്നതില് സര്ക്കാര് പരാജയപ്പെട്ടതായി
സ്പീക്കര് അറിയിച്ചു.
ജന്ലോക്പാല് ബില് അവതരണവുമായി ബന്ധപ്പെട്ട്
പ്രക്ഷുബ്ദവും നാടകീയവുമായ രംഗങ്ങള്ക്കാണ് ഡല്ഹി നിയമസഭ സാക്ഷ്യം
വഹിച്ചത്.
Kejriwal resigns over Janlokpal bill; sets stage for national role (Lead)
(20:30)
New Delhi, Feb 14 (IANS) Forty-nine days after he took
charge of the Delhi government, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Friday
resigned following a tumultuous day in the state assembly where combined
Congress and BJP legislators “defeated” his party’s attempts to
introduce its signal Jan Lokpal bill, which the Aam Admi Pary (AAP) says
was meant to curb corruption in high places.
In political
embarrassment for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, Kejriwal
introduced the bill amid din in the assembly, but an aggressive Congress
and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders became strange bedfellows
to force Speaker M.S. Dhir to go for voting.
In the voting, 42
members voted against the introduction of the bill, while only 27 MLAs -
all AAP leaders - voted for it. Delhi assembly has a total strength of
70.
As it became apparent that the Congress, BJP and Janata
Dal-United legislator Shoiab Iqbal and lone independent Rambeer Shokeen
will not allow the AAP government to introduce the bill, Kejriwal and
his senior cabinet colleague Manish Sisodia presented two appropriation
bills that would empower the government to access funds for expenditure.
Kejriwal then stood up to speak, giving enough indication he
was going to resign when he said that this "seems like our last
(assembly) session". He said it was more important to "fight corruption
than to run a government".
“Today, they did not let the Jan
Lokpal bill to be introduced. It has been defeated,” declared a defiant
and gesticulating Kejriwal.
"Whether our government remains in
power or not is not important," he said, trying to make himself heard
above the din caused by sloganeering and heckling by Congress and BJP
legislators.
"We have come here to save the country. If we have
to give up the chief minister's post for the sake of the country, we
will do it not a hundred times but a thousand times," he said.
Kejriwal
took charge Dec 28 at the head of a minority government propped up by
the Congress after an astonishing election victory.
Both the BJP,
Congress, Shokeen and Iqbal were demanding a discussion on Lt. Governor
Najeeb Jung’s appeal to the government not to table the bill in the
house without his approval.
Jung had earlier in the day written
to the speaker on the matter, which had become contentious over the past
week with the lieutenant-governor saying that the union government's
nod is needed for introducing the bill - an issue on which opinion is
divided among legal and constitutional experts.
But the AAP government was firm and had decided to push for the bill, which was its poll promise.
But
much before the house could be adjourned, messages went out to AAP
members to meet at its party headquarters at Hanuman Road.
When
the three-day session ended in just two days, Kejriwal, without
interacting with media, left for the party office. It was here that he
announced his resignation. The final decision was taken by the party’s
Political Affairs Committee.
On Feb 9, Kejriwal had threatened to resign if the bill was not allowed to be passed.
It
was an action-packed 49-day stint for the AAP government, which
received both bouquets and brickbats for its actions and utterances in
its brief and maiden stint in power in a politically-charged journey
that began with the party's formation on November 2012.
The
party was able to deliver some of its biggest poll promises, including
cheap water, power, anti-corruption helpline, audit of power companies
and acting on suspected corruption in the organisation of Commonwealth
Games and in gas pricing in which he took on from former Delhi chief
minister Sheila Dikshit to industrial Mukesh Ambani, chairman of
Reliance Industries and India's richest man.
But the
indiscretions of one of his ministers, especially Law Minister Somnath
Bharti who went after African residents on suspicion of them being part
of a drug-and-sex racket, and his nightlong blockade of the centre of
the capital, days before the Republic Day Parade, got the party a lot of
flak and adverse media attention.
His resignation now sets him
free to get back to the streets and do what he knows best - to emote
with the problems of the aad admi, the common man, whose ranks have
swelled in support for his party and on whom he is counting to translate
his national ambitions.
Political analysts expect Kejriwal and
his AAP to make a strong bid for a substantial parliamentary presence in
order to be player in the post-election scenario in three months' time.