DELHI SIGNALS NEED FOR DEMONSTRABLE, SOBER GOVERNANCE

WHAT is the primary issue before Delhi's citizens as the three main political parties solicit their votes for the assembly election on February 5? It is much more than roads, hospitals, schools, clean air and 'bijlipani'.

It is responsive governance that Delhi yearns for. Cynics would not hesitate to say the capital city-state is at the mercy of an imposed 'double-engine sarkar'. There is the Aam Aadmi Party, elected to govern. There is the lieutenantgovernor, who is said to interpret rules to expand the Raj Niwas's say in governance. The Supreme Court plays the arbiter, dragged into the governance mess between the two sarkars, to keep the administration moving. Former Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud observed with some exasperation in 2023 that "every dispute, all and sundry, between the government of the National Capital Territory and the LG is coming here".