‘Misleading, untrue, derogatory’: L-G responds to AAP allegations 

Saxena says he was not acting as ‘headmaster’, launches scathing attack on Delhi government’s education model; Kejriwal says AAP doing a good job in the eyes of the public, but he values the Lieutenant-Governor’s criticism, accepts invite for talks 

Lieutenant-Governor V.K Saxena on Friday broke his silence on the barrage of allegations hurled at him over the past week by the AAP government and, in a letter to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, called them “substantially misleading, untrue and derogatory”.

The L-G and the AAP government have been embroiled in a war of words with the latter accusing him of bypassing the elected government and issuing orders on matters that are not under his control. In the recently concluded Assembly session, the AAP government levelled several allegations against the L-G that he had not responded to immediately.

Replying to questions that Mr. Kejriwal raised on the floor of the Assembly on Tuesday asking “who is the L-G” and “where did he come from”, Mr. Saxena said the Constitution has answers to these questions. The other questions do not deserve a reply as they “cater to a very low level of discourse”.

Before launching a critique of the Delhi government’s work in the field of education, Mr. Saxena accused the CM of “political posturing” with his protest march to Raj Niwas on Monday with AAP MLAs, and demanding to meet the L-G and then saying that the “L-G refused to meet me [the Chief Minister]”.

“I was rather astounded that even as the city is grappling with serious developmental issues, you found time to walk for so long and stage a protest solely meant for posturing, rather than taking the issue to a logical conclusion by meeting me,” the L-G said.

Mr. Kejriwal responded to the letter and said, “The sun and the moon look good only when they do their own jobs. Let the Chief Minister do his job, please look after your responsibility. Your responsibility is to handle law and order, the police and the DDA; our job is to work on all other subjects of Delhi. If you leave your work and interfere in our work every day, then how will the system work?” 

However, in a sign that tempers were cooling, Mr. Kejriwal said the L-G has invited all ministers and MLAs for talks over a meal and he would like to accept the invitation and visit the Raj Niwas on Saturday at 1 p.m. or at any other time convenient to the L-G.