New Delhi: The Version 2.0 of Arvind Kejriwal’s government on Friday completes 49 days in office. And the new avatar of Kejriwal’s government looks completely different from the one which governed Delhi from December 28, 2013 to February 14, 2014.
The reason is clear, as the previous 49 day government of Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) government were marked by haste where Kejriwal repeatedly claimed that he had just 48 hours in hand as rivals were looking to pull down his government.
Meanwhile, things in AAP changed drastically shortly after Kejriwal came to power with a landslide victory in the 2015 Delhi Assembly Elections. AAP hit headlines for all the wrong reasons.
The power tussle within the party led by Arvind Kejriwal has led to the challenge of breakup in Delhi and on another hand it has the responsibility to deliver poll promises.
Last week, AAP’s dissident leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan were ousted from the political affairs committee (PAC) citing that they were working against the party.
Meanwhile Admiral L Ramdas was also sacked from the Lokpal of the party. Prof Anand Kumar and Amit Jha were also ousted from the National Executive of AAP.Â
The power battle within AAP left the leaders divided into two factions, where Arvind Kejriwal, led faction alleged that Yadav and Bhushan had maligned the party’s reputation.
The power tussle among senior leaders went uglier day-by-day as the senior party leaders released letters, blogs and sting audio tapes further denting the party’s image.
But apart from all these uglier power tussle episode Kejriwal government looks in no hurry and looks more mature and aggressive to achieve a milestone with hunger to solve people’s problem and also undo the mistakes it committed by quitting in February 2014.
Aggressive
Soon after sworn in as the eighth chief minister of Delhi, Kejriwal along with his senior party colleague and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia displayed his government’s aggression and commitment toward poll promises as they met Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Minister for Urban Development Venkaiah Naidu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to demand full state-hood of Delhi as well as the co-ordination of Delhi police and Urban Ministry on land and water sharing issue with Haryana.
No Hurry
When Kejriwal was sworned as the seventh chief minister of Delhi on December 28, 2013, the rush for making grand announcement was visible in 2014 as the government took decisions on free 20,000 litre water per month and 50% cut in power tariff within 48 hours of coming into the power.
Whereas, in his Version 2.0, Kejriwal took about 10 days after his oath to announce the water and power freebies, no demolition of the properties and not ending the job of contractual labours by issuing the orders.
Meanwhile, this time Kejriwal government is also not making announcements without groundwork. The government is busy in delivering the poll promise by organizing mohalla sabhas to solve people’s problem, setting up committees including the people opinion for Delhi Dialouge Commission to prepare the budget of government.
The version 2.0 government after assuming power also ordered for an audit of the power discoms silently and the government issued notices to various schools in Delhi to comply with the norms.
They have also launched a pension scheme for 30,000 elderly Delhiites. The version 2.0 government has also banned chewable products in the national capital.Â
With few conditions, registry of irregular slums has been started from April 1. And the Delhi government is also working upon new VAT rules to ease the process of tax for businessmen in New Delhi on the purchase of raw materials. Â
The launch of the anti-corruption helpline is also scheduled for April 5, whereas during the 2014 regime it was started within 10 days of the chief minister assuming office.