The first sign of a thaw in the strained relations between the ruling AAP and the bureaucrats in Delhi came on Monday after officials attended a meeting called by Environment Minister Imran Hussain to address the issue of high pollution levels in the national capital. They also agreed to hold talks with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
The IAS officer’s stance came a day after Kejriwal urged them to join meetings, promising to ensure their “security”. On Monday afternoon, the IAS Association convened a meeting and came out with a statement that they were “open to formal discussions on the matter”. However, some AAP leaders said that Hussain, who also holds the food supplies portfolio, had to postpone another meeting as the Food Supplies Commissioner didn’t intimate his unavailability.
The developments came on a day Delhi’s Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, who was on an indefinite hunger strike at the lieutenant governor (L-G) Anil Baijal’s residence since June 13, demanding that the IAS officers end their boycott, had to be hospitalised. His cabinet colleague Satyendar Jain, who was also on a fast, was rushed to hospital on Sunday night.
The series of events capped a weeklong standoff between Kejriwal, who is also camping at the L-G’s residence with a Sit-in protest.
Sisodia, however, shot off a letter to Baijal, asking him to attend the proposed meeting between the CM and the IAS officers. “Since security and services come under your control, we want you to attend this meeting so that we give assurances that we can deliver and you reassure them of whatever you control… We hope you will call a meeting at the earliest and resolve this issue,” he wrote.
(Also Read: Delhi deadlock ends; Arvind Kejriwal to leave L-G house).
Support kept pouring in for Kejriwal as CPI’s Rajya Sabha MP D Raja and Samajwadi Party MP Ram Gopal Yadav visited Sisodia and Jain in hospital. Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut also spoke in favour of Kejriwal.
BJP sitting in Dharna at CM residence opposed AAP “PM turns a blind eye to the anarchy; rather nudges chaos & disorder. People of Delhi are the victims, as this drama plays out.”