New Delhi, March 22: The Centre is "a specialist in abusing the rights of states" and wants to rule Delhi through the soul of the British-era Viceroy, AAP MP Bhagwant Mann said in Lok Sabha on Monday as he vehemently opposed a bill that seeks to make it clear that the "government" in the national capital means the "Lieutenant Governor".
During a discussion on the bill, Mann, the sole Lok Sabha member of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that governs Delhi, wondered whether the Centre wants to turn the national capital into a union territory without assembly like Jammu and Kashmir.
"The Delhi L-G lives in the house the Viceroy used to stay during the British rule. Maybe, the Centre wants to run Delhi through soul of Viceroy," Mann said.
The AAP MP said if the chief minister of Delhi cannot take any decision, then what's the point of conducting assembly polls. Insurance (Amendment) Bill, 2021 Passed in Lok Sabha.
"The Centre is a specialist in abusing the rights of states, whether it was in the case of farm laws or in running state governments through governors," he said.
Hitting out at the BJP which is in power at the Centre, Mann said thorough this bill the party wants to weaken the AAP government in the national capital as it is unable to digest its defeat in assembly elections.
"The BJP should learn to digest defeat. The AAP had won more than 90 per cent of the assembly seats in Delhi last time and the BJP didn't have enough MLAs to be given the Leader of Opposition rank, but still our party gave it," Mann said.
He further said it seems the BJP has forgotten how to sit in the opposition as it is out of power in the national capital for more than two decades. "Learn to digest your defeat and sit in opposition, otherwise you would get such a huge defeat you would never recover,” he said.
Mann alleged the bill is against the spirit of federalism and the Centre is murdering democracy through this legislation and wants to run the national capital through stick.
The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) (Amendment) Bill, 2021 was passed by Lok Sabha on Monday. It was introduced in Lok Sabha by Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy last week.
According to the bill, the "government" in the city would mean the "Lieutenant Governor" (L-G) in context of any law made by the legislative assembly.
The bill also makes it mandatory for the Delhi government to take the opinion of the L-G before any executive action.
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)