AAP government's countdown has begun: Congress
"Countdown" for the AAP government in Delhi has begun, the Congress said on Monday in the wake of Arvind Kejriwal and his colleagues hitting the streets agitating against the Delhi Police and wondered who will run the government if the chief minister sits on dharna.
"Countdown has begun by the way Kejriwal has started all this. Government is run from the secretariat and not from the streets," party spokesman Meem Afzal said.
"They should end the habit to be on streets after getting power. You cannot perform the role of the opposition while being in power", he told reporters at the AICC briefing.
Speaking separately, Union Minister Jairam Ramesh said if Kejriwal and his team continue to resort to such actions, Congress should reconsider its support to the government.
In remarks signaling that the patience of Congress, supporting the Delhi government, is wearing thin, Afzal asked the chief minister, "What will be Delhi's fate in the next 10 days when he will be on a dharna?"
Suggesting that the work in Delhi government has come to a standstill, he wondered whether any of the Delhi ministers today did any official work, passed any orders or taken any administrative meeting.
"If this goes on for the next 10 days, what they will deliver to the people of Delhi. How can the administration, which is necessary for running day to day affairs, function." Party general secretary Digvijay Singh, who had earlier dared Kejriwal to contest elections, also said that AAP should fight Lok Sabha polls if it wanted to change laws as they are made in Parliament and not through dharnas on roads.
"He is Chief Minister. Let him change the system. It cannot be done by shouting," party spokesperson Bhakta Charan Das said.
At the AICC meeting, Afzal declined to comment on the reported remarks of Kejriwal that it would be better if Republic Day is not celebrated this January 26.
"I do not want to comment. But you are aware of the reaction all over the country when such remarks were made in the past," he said.
Asked whether the Delhi chief minister will be shifted from the spot, where he is staging a dharna, to the Jantar Mantar, he said that he has been told that the entire area does not come under police but remains under the command of the Army before the Republic Day.
To a query as to how long the Congress would support the Kejriwal government as the AAP is leaving no opportunity to humiliate it, Afzal said his party had given support to AAP as people wanted formation of the government.