Arvind Kejriwal was enraged today when Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena allegedly stalled a Delhi teachers’ training trip to Finland, wondering whether he truly had a voice in such matters.
“LG, who?” yelled Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal during a furious speech at a special assembly session scheduled to address what the governing Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) claims is the Lieutenant Governor’s continuous overreach.
“Who exactly is this LG? He’s perched on top of our heads. Who is he to say what our children should learn? These adults have allowed our children to remain illiterate. The LG lacks the authority to stop us. Nothing in life is permanent. With our LG, we may be in power at the Centre tomorrow. No one will be harassed by our government”, Kejriwal declared.
My professors never scrutinised my schoolwork the way this LG does, criticising about spellings and penmanship…
Is he not my principal? “I am an elected chief minister”, Mr Kejriwal said, eliciting chuckles from the AAP-dominated House.
Mr Kejriwal and his party have accused the Lieutenant Governor of cancelling the Delhi government’s plan to train primary school teachers in Finland. Mr Saxena has categorically disputed this, claiming that all he needed was a cost-benefit study.
“I told him (the Lieutenant Governor), who are you to request a cost-benefit analysis? I was elected by the people. He stated that he was chosen by the President. As I already stated, how do the British select viceroys? ‘You bloody Indians, you don’t know how to rule,’ viceroys used to remark. Now you’re saying, ‘You bloody Delhiwalas, you don’t know how to rules’ “,The Chief Minister of Delhi exploded. Mr Kejriwal said that the Lieutenant Governor boasted about the BJP gaining 104 seats in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections in December because of him.
“He informed me at the a meeting that the BJP won 104 seats in the MCD polling data because of god and that they would not have won sometimes 20 votes without him”,said the AAP president, adding that Mr Saxena predicted that the BJP would win all seven Sabha seats in India in the next general election because of him.
He said that the Lt Governor lacks the authority to make judgements on his own. “The Supreme Court has clearly stated that he cannot rule on issues pertaining to the police, land, and public order,” Mr Kejriwal remarked.
The Delhi Chief Minister also displayed a list of “children of BJP MPs, MLAs, and ministers who have studied overseas”,claiming that everyone should have access to the greatest education available.
Yesterday, the Lieutenant Governor denied obstructing the teachers’ travel and claimed he wanted the government to consider training teachers in the nation. “”Any claim to the contrary is purposefully misleading and viciously motivated”, he said.