Centre out to paralyse Delhi government: Sisodia

The arrests of two Delhi government officers, including the principal secretary to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, and the transfer of many others is aimed at paralysing the AAP government, Delhi's deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said on Monday (See: CBI arrests 2 Kejriwal officials, 3 others in Delhi)

Terming the arrests of Rajendra Kumar and Tarun Kumar, the principal secretary and deputy secretary to Kejriwal respectively, as ''a conspiracy to paralyse the CM's office'', Sisodia said the Narendra Modi government was rattled by the AAP's popularity in poll-bound Punjab and Goa.

And ''today one of our ministers, Kapil Mishra, was called for questioning by ACB (Anti-Corruption Branch),'' he added. ''This is clearly an attempt to paralyse our government.''

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which raided Rajendra Kumar's office on 15 December last year, on Monday announced his arrest along with four others in a corruption case.

Sisodia pointed out that the CBI could not produce ''even a single proof in the court even to prove the authenticity of the raid. But today, they suddenly arrested Rajendra Kumar.''

Simultaneously, the assistant secretary to the chief minister had been transferred to Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Sisodia, a long-time confidant of Kejriwal, added, ''This is the lowest levels to which a central government has stooped from the time Delhi had an elected government in 1991.

''Eleven senior officers have been transferred out of Delhi on a single day, that too illegally without a meeting of the Joint Cadre Authority,'' he said.

These, he said, included a senior officer handling unauthorised colonies and another overseeing an ambitious project of installing CCTV cameras in all government schools. Both were shunted out to Andaman.

''All this is happening because AAP is winning elections in Punjab and Goa and garnering massive support in Gujarat,'' Sisodia said.

The AAP leader added, ''Modiji, let me tell you, we have been elected by people of Delhi. We shall run an effective government for them despite all your attacks on us.

''We want to tell you, Modiji, that even if you leave only peons with us, we will work for the people of Delhi. We will not let your conspiracies to succeed.''

There was no immediate reaction to the developments from Kejriwal, who reached Punjab on Sunday on a two-day visit to garner support for the AAP in the upcoming assembly elections.