Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena has termed statements against him by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal both inside and outside the Delhi Assembly as “substantively misleading, untrue and derogatory”. In a letter to the Chief Minister days after Kejriwal’s animated attack against him in the Delhi Assembly, the L-G referred to media reports related to the allegations and said some of these did not deserve a reply since they “cater to a very low level of discourse.”
Addressing the Assembly on Tuesday, Kejriwal accused the L-G of harbouring a “feudal mindset” and claimed that the latter was denying primary teachers in the capital the opportunity to attend a training programme in Finland at the behest of the BJP.
“Kaun LG? Kahan se aaya hai yeh? Hamare sar pe baith gaya hai. (Who is this L-G? Where has he come from? He is sitting on our heads.),” the Delhi CM had said.
Responding specifically to the CM’s “Kaun L-G” poser, Saxena advised Kejriwal to refer to the Constitution for an answer. “It has come to my notice that you have made many statements in and out of the State Assembly over the past few days, which have been severally and substantive misleading, untrue and derogatory. As to ‘who is LG’ and ‘where did he come from’, etc. can be answered, if you were to even cursorily refer to the Constitution of India, others do not deserve a reply, since they obviously cater to a very low level of discourse,” the L-G wrote in his letter to the Chief Minister date January 20.
“I came to know through media reports that on Monday…you left the Assembly and were protesting with others outside Raj Niwas, demanding to meet me. Thereafter, I invited you and the Dy. Chief Minister to come and see me. I would have, indeed, loved to have you over and served you lunch as well,” Saxena said in his letter to the Chief Minister.
“However, you chose not to come on the pretext of wanting to meet me with all of your MLAs. You would appreciate that, given the short notice and sudden demand on your part, it would not have been possible to at once have a meeting with 70-80 people, nor would have it served any concrete purpose,” he added, referring to the Delhi CM’s allegation that the Lieutenant Governor refused to meet a delegation of party MLAs who walked to the Raj Niwas.
“I was rather astounded at the fact that even as the city is grappling with several serious developmental issues, you found time to walk for long and stage a protest meant solely for posturing, rather than taking the issue to a logical conclusion by meeting me,” Saxena stated.
The L-G’s letter also drew attention to issues related to falling attendance in government schools (78.06% in 2009-10 to 60.65% in 2019-20), a drop in enrolment in government schools from 16.1 lakh in 2013-14 to 15.1 lakh in 2019-20, and no new government schools being built in the national capital in the last 8 years, among other issues.
The tussle between the Delhi L-G and the government intensified after the AAP accused the L-G of blocking a training programme for primary teachers in Delhi in Finland. As per the Delhi government, the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) planned to send two groups of 30 teachers to Jyvaskyla University in Finland in December 2022 and March 2023.
As per a release issued by the government, the 5-day training programme is meant for primary in-charges of Delhi government schools and teacher educators of SCERT. Under this, SCERT has made a budget provision in its annual plan and SCERT has been given a grant in aid by the Delhi government for conducting such training programmes.