Delhi LG and Arvind Kejriwal tussle rockets up to 'sun' and 'moon'

Taking their war of words to a new level, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said there will be a chaos on earth if the Sun and the Moon do not operate in their own orbits, after Lt Governor VK Saxena told him to refer to the Constitution to understand the position of an LG.The chief minister also alleged Saxena and his office have been interfering in the day-to-day affairs of Delhis elected government.

Taking their war of words to a new level, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said there will be a chaos on earth if the Sun and the Moon do not operate in their own orbits, after Lt Governor VK Saxena told him to refer to the Constitution to understand the position of an LG.

The chief minister also alleged Saxena and his office have been interfering in the day-to-day affairs of Delhi's elected government. As the rhetoric intensified, the weekly meeting between Saxena and Kejriwal did not take place on Friday, with officials not giving any specific reason as to why they did not meet.

Earlier in the day, Saxena shot off a letter to Kejriwal, accusing him of ''political posturing'' during a march on January 16 to the Raj Niwas with his deputy Manish Sisodia and AAP MLAs.

The LG also wrote that on that day he invited Kejriwal and his deputy for a meeting on, but the CM refused insisting he would bring along all AAP MLAs. ''Unfortunately, you went ahead to make a convenient political posture by saying the LG refused to meet me,'' Saxena told Kejriwal. ''It has come to my notice through media reports that you have made many statements in and out of the state assembly over the past few days, which have been severally and substantively misleading, untrue and derogatory,'' Saxena said.

''I must mention here that 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,'' the L-G wrote in his letter to Kejriwal.

Saxena accused Kejriwal of making ''misleading and derogatory'' remarks against him, a few days after Kejriwal questioned the LG's authority saying 'Who is LG?'.

Kejriwal wrote back a hard-hitting letter, though he ''thanked'' Saxena for his invitation and sought a meeting on Saturday. He said he would be accompanied by his ministers and MLAs. ''The people of Delhi have only seen you interfering in the day-to-day affairs of their elected government. There is a lot of anger among the people over why you put obstacles in the work of the people everyday?'' he wrote. ''If the people of Delhi wanted to send their teachers abroad for training then why did you stop it? Because you stop people's work every day, the people only say - who is the LG?'' Kejriwal said.

The two sides have been engaged in a public war of words over several issues including law and order, sending government teachers to Finland for training, air pollution and the cleaning of Yamuna.

''Someday if the sun starts to feel that the moon is not working properly and today I will do the work of the moon, then the whole earth will see chaos. The Sun does its own work and the moon does its own work, only then the whole system runs smoothly,'' Kejriwal said. ''Let the CM do his work, you fix the law and order of Delhi so that cases like Kanjhawala don't happen again, only then Delhi's system will be fine,'' he told the LG. In his letter, Saxena also tried to put the AAP government in the dock by raising several issues related the education sector. Saxena said the average attendance in government schools has been falling every year, dropping to 60.65 per cent in 2019-2020 from 70.73 per cent in 2012-2013. He also questioned the AAP dispensation's claims on students migrating from private schools to government ones.

''Contrary to claims, the number of students going to private schools has increased in Delhi. While the share of private schools in 2013-2014 was 35%, the same went up to 43% in 2019-2020, and despite migration from private schools to government schools due to the pandemic distress, this number yet hovers around 40%,'' Saxena said. Kejriwal in his reply said the criticism was 'duly respected', but added ''had the Centre and different LGs not interfered, the government would have made more strides in the education sphere.'' ''The people of Delhi have given us a historic majority thrice. In the eyes of public, we are doing good work. Your criticism is duly respected. No system is perfect. There have been several improvements in the education system of Delhi. But a lot needs to be done. We have a long way to go,'' Kejriwal said.

Kejriwal alleged Saxena is interfering in the elected government's works rather than improving the city's law and order situation which is the ''worst''.

''Every Delhiite hangs their head in shame when the entire world refers to Delhi as the rape capital. Crimes are increasing in Delhi. Women find it difficult to step out of their homes,'' he said.

He also cited the incident in which the Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal was allegedly molested by a drunk man and dragged by his car for 10-15 metres with her hand stuck in the vehicle window. Anjali Singh (20) was killed in the early hours of the new year day after her scooter was hit by a car, which dragged her for more than 12 kilometres from Sultanpuri to Kanjhawala here.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)