Centre has begun to tighten its noose around the Delhi government

Delhi AAP Government: ‘Apne CM ko thanks kehna ki mai airport zinda pahunch paya’,” were the words of Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the unfortunate security breach that took place in Punjab’s Ferozepur. And Yes! The statement translates to “Thanks to your chief minister, I have reached the airport safe and sound. At that point, many could not believe that these words were actually spoken by a prime minister.

The Congress government then dismissed reports of any security breach. With the new government almost completing a year in office, there has been little to no progress in the matter. PM Modi has time and again warned AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal to refrain from his kind of politics, which is the ‘politics of freebies’. However, to your surprise, no heed was paid to that either.

Now, the time of warnings has passed, and the center has plunged into action. It seems what was said by the Prime Minister at that point in time has begun to show its results.

AAP cries like dying goats over the budget halt

Delhi Finance Minister Kailash Gehlot has announced the Rs 78,800-crore budget for the financial year 2023–24 in the Delhi assembly. The budget was scheduled to be presented on Tuesday but was delayed after the Ministry of Home Affairs sought clarification. The Aam Aadmi Party, however, has resorted to its way of doing politics and has referred to the budget halt as being done for “cheap publicity.”

Kailash Gehlot even called the center’s move “unconstitutional,” alleging that an elected government has been prevented from presenting the budget in the House. A video of Arvind Kejriwal accusing the center-right government of gundagardi is also being circulated by the Aam Aadmi Party. But here the question is. Why has the center halted the budget?

Also read: AAP is dragging Punjab back to 1980s

The Center tightens the noose over “ad spend”

First question: Did the center halt the Delhi budget? The answer is yes! In an official statement, the Ministry of Home Affairs said that it had received the financial statement for the year 2023–24 and that the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi had raised some concerns of an administrative nature on the proposed budget, keeping in mind the fiscal interests of the National Capital.

In a letter dated March 17, 2023, the MHA asked the Delhi Government to resubmit the budget addressing these concerns for further action. However, from March 17 until yesterday, that is, March 22, the Delhi government did not reply, due to which it was unable to present the budget on the scheduled date, which was Tuesday.

The MHA itself had said, “For the benefit of the people of Delhi, the GNCTD should submit a reply immediately.” So, the Delhi government did not reply to the concerns. What did it do instead? Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal wrote a letter to the Prime Minister requesting him “not to stop Delhi’s budget”.

So now you know the entire story. Now, let’s move on to what concerns the Delhi LG VK Saxena had with the government budget. The LG had pointed out that the expenditure done by the Delhi government on ads, basically publicity, was unjustifiable. The LG has asked as to why the Kejriwal government was doubling the expenditure on advertisements in the last two years.

The LG has also sought to know why benefits for central government schemes like Ayushman Bharat were being denied to Delhiites. This is not the first time that the LG has pointed out overspending on advertisements by the Delhi government. He has earlier flagged the issue of ad spend multiple times, the latest being in December last year.

Also read: AAP is using Delhi budget as a buffer to save its face

Punjab Government takes action over PM’s security breach

Arvind Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party spending on ads is not new to anyone, neither the common people nor the central government. Stiil, it was too long of a wait from the central government’s side to plunge into action. Although this is not the only field.

The union government has also tightened the noose around the Punjab government’s inaction following the prime minister’s security breach that took place in January 2022. On March 12, the center sought an action-taken report from Punjab. The Union Home Secretary, Ajay Bhalla, asked Punjab Chief Secretary Vijay Kumar Janjua to submit an action taken report, highlighting the delay by the state government in acting against the erring officers.

Reports published on March 21 suggest that the Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has ordered the initiation of “disciplinary proceedings for major penalties” against former DGP S. Chattopadhyaya and two other police officers.

Also read: AAP is drowning deep in corruption, Jal Board and liquor are just the tip of the iceberg

Be it the action against Khalistani leader Amritpal Singh and his aides or the initiation of a probe in the matter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s security breach, the Bhagwant Mann government doing the bare minimum is the result of the center’s pressure to come out of its slumber and perform.

The swift-action against the Delhi government was also done to send out a simple message: ‘Stop unjustified expenditure on ads and publicity and put the tax-payers’ money to good use. Was it necessary to exercise power against the state government? The answer lies in the petty politics played by the opposition parties, one of the examples being not implementing the Ayushman Bharat scheme in opposition-ruled states, be it Delhi, West Bengal, or Odisha.