On a day that saw the Congress and the BJP perfectly coordinate their moves in the Delhi Assembly to hijack the Speaker's powers for the day, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has issued a fresh threat to the two parties.
He has said that he will resign if the introduction of the Delhi Jan Lokpal Bill is defeated when it is introduced in the Assembly tomorrow.
"The Congress-BJP coalition has won today," said Kejriwal speaking to reporters, after an assembly session that was marked by a series of adjournments.
Kejriwal outside the Delhi Assembly yesterday. PTI
The first day of the special assembly session witnessed some rowdy scenes with one Congress MLA Asif Mohammad going so far as to snatch papers from the Speaker's desk and throwing torn pieces of paper into the air.
Mohammad also tried to break the microphone on Kejriwal's desk, giving the CM a quite a start.
MLAs from the BJP and the Congress, in what seemed like a coordinated attempt at disrupting the House took turns to storm the well of the House and shout slogans demanding law minister Somnath Bharti's resignation.
Speaking to reporters about remarkable coordination between the Congress and the BJP today, Kejriwal said, "For the first time in Delhi's history, the synchronised action and match-fixing between the Congress and BJP has been exposed. Within a matter of five minutes they passed four resolutions with a voice vote...they both sought to call attention on the same issue, they both brought posters with the same slogans."
"It seems as if some meeting has taken place between them. When and where did this meeting take place. The issue was not Bharti, he was only a scapegoat," he said.
Kejriwal said that he suspected that the Delhi government's move earlier this week directing the anti-corruption bureau to register an FIR against Mukesh Ambani and Reliance Industries over gas pricing had "prompted both the parties to aggressively oppose the party" and that their behaviour in today's assembly was a reflection of that.
On the crucial issue of the Jan Lokpal bill, Kejriwal said that his government will stick to its stance that the bill's introduction in the Assembly without the Lieutenant Governor's approval was not in violation of the Constitution.
Kejriwal reiterated that the Delhi Assembly was fully within its rights to make laws on all except three issues and that in cases where the Assembly passes a bill that is repugnant to a central law, then the President's consent is required to be taken "after the bill is passed by the Assembly."
He called the Home Ministry's order that a bill introduced by Delhi assembly should first be approved by it was unconstitutional. "The Home Ministry is not superior to the Delhi Assembly," Kejriwal said.
The BJP and the Congress, said Kejriwal, want that the bill to be sent to the Centre. "We know what will happen if the bill is sent to the Centre. It will be sent back with a list that says that such and such sections are repugnant to the Central law and that it should be changed."
"We will not allow that to happen. When the Constitution gives the Delhi Assembly the right to pass a repugnant law, how can the Home Ministry deny it its right," said Kejriwal.
Asked what he would do if the Congress and the BJP continued to disrupt the Assembly like they did today, Kejriwal said that he was willing to give them a long rope.
But should the House vote against the introduction of the bill, he issued an ultimatum. "We will introduce the bill tomorrow...if they defeat the introduction of the bill, the government will resign," Kejriwal said.
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