Lashing out at the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government for “handing power to the Lieutenant Governor”, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said that the Centre “punished” the Aam Aadmi Party-led government for supporting farmers' stir against the three new agricultural laws
Addressing a Kisan Mahapanchayat in Haryana’s Jind district today, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal said, "They've introduced a bill in Parliament to punish Kejriwal. We faced repercussion for supporting farmer's protest. They are punishing us by passing the bill & handing power into LG's hands instead of elected govt. Did we fight freedom struggle for this?"
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-cards="hidden" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">They've introduced a bill in Parliament to punish Kejriwal. We faced repercussion for supporting farmer's protest. They are punishing us by passing the bill & handing power into LG's hands instead of elected govt. Did we fight freedom struggle for this?: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal <a href="https://news.abplive.com/news/india/delhi-cm-arvind-kejriwal-his-family-get-first-dose-of-covid-19-vaccine-at-lok-nayak-hospital-1446997">pic.twitter.com/aSV6laApTl</a></p>— ANI (@ANI) <a >April 4, 2021</a></blockquote>
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Kejriwal went on to say that BJP-led central govt conspired to put farmers coming to Delhi into 9 stadiums to be converted into jails. Kejriwal said that the Delhi government was fortunate that time as the law stated that Delhi Chief Minister holds the power to convert the stadium into jai.
"Centre sent me a file and started pressurising me by saying there will be law and order issue. They even threatened me of taking away my power. I didn't listen to them and rejected the file," CM Kejriwal added.
Recollecting the sacrifices made by farmers, the CM claimed that 300 people have lost lives during the protest and their sacrifice should not go in vain.
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President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday gave his assent to a bill that gives more powers to Delhi's Lieutenant Governor - the centre's representative - compared to the city's elected government.
According to the legislation, the “government” in Delhi means the “Lieutenant Governor” and the city government will now have to seek the opinion of the L-G before taking any executive action.