 Hello and welcome to NewsClick. The tussle between Delhi government and the central government and the bureaucracy is once again in the news. And to discuss the issue, we are joined by Prabir Purghasta, our editor-in-chief. So Prabir, this news about the tussle between the chief secretary and the chief minister of Delhi Irvind K. Jeeval and there's also news of violence that took place in the meeting. What actually happened? Because there are various versions to it. Well, you know, the versions are going to be difficult to evaluate because we really were not there so we can't really talk about it. But I think two or three things are important to note in this context. One is the way the Delhi government has been stopped from doing various things, the way it has tried to scupper the central government and the left-wing governor and the bureaucracy, the way they have tried to scupper various plans by up. This is really the backdrop within which we have to see this. And it's also true that in the agenda, it is true that one, the first item on that agenda is supposedly the issue of two and a half lakhs people not getting rations because of linking to Aadhar. We all know that Aadhar and we have been discussing this in NewsClick time and enough that Aadhar being linked in this fashion is going to leave a large number of deserving people out because the biometrics for at least 10 percent people cannot be matched. This is something which we know from various states. The figures have been from 50 percent, 40 percent, 20 percent. But let's even go below that and say 10 percent people don't get rations. For any political party running Delhi, it is going to be a big issue. The question that we all have to ask, what was the need to call a meeting at 12 o'clock at night in Chief Minister's residence? And if you do so, you also raise a whole lot of then questions about the intentions of this meeting, which is what has happened. The third point that we have to again register this, the persons charged, Amanullah Khan who has been one of the corporators, one of the MLAs, is unfortunately known to be involved in various incidents. He has, shall we say, credentials, which would then substantiate what might have happened. So, I think this is, without going into the investigations, the eyewitness accounts or the judicial actions that have to follow. The question is, calling the Chief Secretary at 12 o'clock at night and then the allegations of violence does create a scenario in which AAP has lost a lot of credibility. And the main issue, if it was of the ration cards not being allowed because of Aadhar not matching, I think that issue has completely now disappeared and this is the unfortunate part of what has happened that what should have been a very major issue for Delhi government is now become something which is sideshow and the main show has been, was the Chief Secretary assaulted or not? So, I mean, if we have seen in last few years, since the new government has come in Delhi, there has been various such schemes which LG has decided not to pass. And this is one addition to this entire process that they are not getting support from the centre, this is what they claim. What does this entire thing signify? I mean, where is it heading towards? You know, it is very clear that the Lieutenant Governor has been an instrument of the Central Government policies. It is also clear that the bureaucracy has got clear signals that you cooperate with the AAP government. Then you can be charged under various things and everybody may have some skeletons in their cupboard or may be vulnerable to different kinds of interpretations being put into what could be justifiable actions by a bureaucrat. So, therefore, the bureaucracy is always vulnerable if the Central Government decides to act against them and we know that the Central Government is the one which the bureaucracy finally has to answer to. So, this has been a problem with the IES, IPS, the Central Services that they are really not under the state government, but they are the Central Government. And we have seen it in time and again when the Central Government and the local government, the state governments have been in different hands. Delhi, of course, is an additional problem. It is really a union territory, half union territory, half state shall we say. And therefore, the Lieutenant Governor has more powers than what any other governor has. So, this is the context within which we are saying. You know, the question for AAP has been they have done reasonably good work in terms of election promises they made, what they have kept, the fact they have been able to make the schools function relatively much better than the earlier administration, the healthcare facilities, the healthcare facilities, the local clinics. There might be various things people may say about them and yes, there would be some legitimate criticism of that. The reality is the first time we saw local clinics work under the government health schemes. We saw the schools which, public government schools, which are really in bad shape, come back to a semblance of well-run schools. I will say yes, there is some distance to go, but a huge change on these two counts. The what is unfortunate for AAP is that those things do not come to the forefront partly because the media itself does not want to give space to that, but partly because of the adversarial way, Armit Kejriwal's government seems to work, that they are willing to be seen as shall we say far more aggressive in their public utterances in the way they handle themselves rather than handling it in a different way, where they can mobilize the people, do things by which you can really create a campaign rather than try and do this kind of what shall I say extremely stupid actions by which the entire issue then hinges what happened at 12 o'clock at night, not what the issues were. Also probably you raised a point about the media and the role that media is playing. It is also necessary to analyze what, how media has seen this entire episode. You see Republic TV, they are asking for resignation of Armit Kejriwal immediately, while Mirror Now reports it differently and NDTV reports it differently. How do you see this reporting of media especially when there is this PNB and Nira Modi case, which was going to an extreme level and BGP was facing major crisis because of it. Well let's put it this way, the media today at least large parts of it has become the wash dog of the government against the opposition. This is not the supposed role of a media, which is the wash dog of the people against the government. So the media itself has shall be say betrayed this fundamental premise which is we are a check on power. We actually speak truth to power. Now here they are actually speaking lies for the powerful or for power and this is unfortunate the way a large section of the media today is behaving. So that's one part of it. People will call it troll media. They are saying that even Fox TV in the United States doesn't go as far as Republic does. All these things are definitely there but that also what seems to get the eyeball, the confrontation, the drama and all of that. So I think the media has become really a high octane performer for the government most of these cases. So it's not surprising that Republic TV or Times Now would play this kind of role. In fact majority of the channels play this kind of role and this has been again noted by media observers that there are two kinds of things that happen in this kind of media. One is of course to try and put the opposition on the mat. Whatever happens the opposition is guilty. Second is if something big comes up in which the government or the government's policies are at fault, then immediately try and distract attention by raking something completely extraneous and Pakistan always gives a good handle, China is another handle. So you can always find some issue then which becomes the main issue, support the military, oppose Pakistan. So as if there is the debate, these are the debates and then Niram Modi becomes Niram. That's the whole principle on which the media seems to operate. We have a few pockets and of course NewsClick would like to play what media should be but yes, let's face it. This is not the dominant theme in the media today. So probably this would be the last question. So what's the way forward for Amar Nipati in solving this entire confrontation because one of the promises that are made in this election manifesto was fight for the full statehood, which they have not taken up at all in the last few years. I'm skeptical about the full statehood issue partly because the Delhi is the capital. It cannot be a state like any other state. You can talk about leaving a certain part of Delhi then outside the realm of the state and consider that as something which then is handled differently. But you must understand that basically lots of the population of Delhi is here because it is a capital. It has people from all states coming into it. So a partial statehood or a limited state of Delhi may be the reality that you have to face. Yes, I do think a lot of the policing should be up to the Delhi government except in certain areas. So one can look at all of those but a full statehood of the kind of any other state for the capital would always be a bit of a problem. I think ARP needs to learn how to work not only as opposition but also as a party in power. Even if the power is limited as we have seen currently, a party in power must also show the ability to govern and also the way you would govern and if you have conflict with the central government as you do in this particular case then how do you really modulate that? How do you carry it out? How are you an opposition to the central government? How are you with the people of Delhi as well as you have to govern parts of what you have been given under the constitution to do? I think it is a, shall we say, a trading a very thin line but that is the maturity that the Kejriwal government or a dark party has to do. Unfortunately in this particular case they have not shown that maturity. Thanks a lot Prabhu for giving us your time and as these things proceed we will be coming back to you on such issues once again. Thanks a lot. Thank you for watching NewsClick. Keep following our website and our Facebook page.