Mallika Dureja
On Tuesday, Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and senior minister Satyendar Jain, who are both in prison facing corruption charges, resigned, marking the first major shakeup in a state government battling a multitude of graft allegations.
The resignations occurred hours after the Supreme Court denied immediate relief to Sisodia, who was detained by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday in connection with allegations of financial irregularities in the now-abandoned excise policy.
In May of last year, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) detained Jain in connection with a money laundering investigation.
The allegations have been refuted by Jain, Sisodia, and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as political vendetta.
“Multiple FIRs have been filed against me, and more are forthcoming. They left no stone unturned to assure that I would leave,” Sisodia wrote in his three-page resignation letter.
Meanwhile, Delhi government officials have indicated that Sisodia’s 18 cabinet portfolios will be divided between Kailash Gahlot, who will supervise eight ministries, including finance and excise, and Raaj Kumar Anand, who will oversee ten ministries, including education and health.
This arrangement is likely to be temporary until two new ministers are appointed.
Sisodia stated that he was “threatened and promised bribes” but did not yield.
In addition, he asserted that corruption allegations were made out of fear of Kejriwal’s rise. “Their prisons do not frighten me, and I am not the first person to be arrested for pursuing the path of truth. I have read innumerable accounts of individuals who fought against the British and were falsely imprisoned. Some were even executed by hanging, he wrote in the letter.
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After Jain’s arrest last year, seven portfolios were transferred to Sisodia, who was in charge of 18 departments on Sunday when he was detained. The Delhi council of ministers now consists of five members, including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who holds no portfolios.
“The ministers resigned because they did not want the AAP government’s duties to be impeded… The party’s chief spokesman, Saurabh Bhardwaj, announced that two new faces will be inducted very shortly.
According to unnamed party officials, Bhardwaj, Atishi (the AAP MLA from Kalkaji), Durgesh Pathak (Rajinder Nagar), and Dilip Pandey (Timarpur) are among the frontrunners. They will have to work during a period of increasing pressure on the government and a struggle for administrative control with the Raj Bhavan.
A Delhi government official reported that the chief minister has accepted the resignation letters of the two ministers and forwarded them to lieutenant governor VK Saxena.
The Delhi government did not receive Jain’s letter of resignation. In addition, the state did not respond to questions about why Jain resigned nine months after his indictment.
Manish Sisodia oversaw 18 of Delhi’s at least 35 departments, including health, education, public works, excise, and electricity. He assumed control of the health and public works departments only a year ago. Previously, the other four ministers, Gahlot, Gopal Rai, Anand, and Imran Hussain, oversaw a total of fifteen departments.
“Both ministers resigned because the law permits only six ministers in addition to the chief minister in the Delhi cabinet. “Every minister, MLA, councilmember, and AAP volunteer will eternally remain in their support and await their release,” Bhardwaj stated.
The crisis began on Sunday when the CBI apprehended Sisodia after eight hours of interrogation. A Delhi court granted CBI custody for five days on Monday after the agency argued that the former minister was not cooperating and that “incriminating evidence” needed to be presented to him. The detention of Sisodia is related to the excise policy for 2021-22 for which the agency claims kickbacks were paid. Investigators are concentrating on the connections between Sisodia and the so-called South Group, a group of businessmen, politicians, and middlemen who allegedly benefited from it. The minister and the AAP have rubbished the allegations.
In 2017, the CBI lodged a complaint against Jain, alleging that he had laundered money through companies he controlled. In August of that year, the ED filed a case against him under the Money Laundering Prevention Act. Five companies owned by Jain and his relatives received 4.81 crore in accommodation entries from shell companies via hawala channels, according to the agency. The AAP and Jain have denied all allegations.
The resignation of two senior ministers is likely to have an impact on Delhi’s governance in the near future, according to an unnamed senior government official.
Some of the departments that Sisodia oversaw were highly specialised, such as finance. A new minister who has never held the portfolio in the past will likely require some time to grasp the department’s operations. Obviously, there is bureaucratic continuity, and it is not an impossible undertaking, but the process is likely to slow down for the time being,” said the official who requested anonymity.
Kejriwal assigned Jain’s portfolios to Sisodia upon his detention in 2022, but Jain continued to serve as a minister. The official cited above stated, “There was no discernible or reported decline in the governance or supervision.”
The resignations caused a political dispute, with the BJP demanding the resignation of Kejriwal. The BJP formed a protest committee led by the opposition leader in the Delhi assembly, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, to demand the resignation of the chief minister. “Arvind Kejriwal was the architect of the irregularities in the excise policy. Nothing was done without Kejriwal’s consent and sanction. He was involved in all decisions, and he received the bribes… The demonstrations will continue until he resigns, according to Bidhuri.
The AAP responded. “The Modi administration is conducting an organised witch chase, and Sisodia and Jain are victims of political vendettas.” “Both of our senior ministers have devoted their lives to the development of Delhi, but the BJP has subjected them to harassment and suffering,” Bhardwaj stated.
