Rethink stand on statehood: Gopal Rai to Rahul Gandhi

NEW DELHI:

AAP

Delhi convener Gopal Rai wrote to Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday and requested him to reconsider his stand on

full statehood

for Delhi.

Rai

said full statehood will allow the people of Delhi to live with dignity.

Despite the buzz that the two parties are exploring the possibility of an alliance, sharp contradictions emerged on Tuesday when Congress promised full statehood to Puducherry but not Delhi, which is AAP’s main poll plank. AAP said it won’t have any

alliance

with Congress unless it incorporated the promise of full statehood for Delhi in its manifesto, though in the political circles, AAP’s statement was construed as mere posturing.

AAP has stated that it will take the process of alliance further only after Gandhi clarifies his stand on statehood. “While you are talking about NYAY (minimum income scheme) for the entire country, the residents of Delhi have been subjected to decades of injustice, which crossed all limits during the last five years,” Rai said in his letter to Gandhi.

Explaining the struggle for full statehood that spanned three decades, the letter said that since 2003, nothing moved on that front and Delhi continued to suffer injustice. “Since 2014 onwards, when Modi government came to power, Delhi has witnessed its worst period, with the trampling of democracy and murder of federalism,” the letter stated.

On Congress’s manifesto, the AAP leader said the reference in the manifesto regarding the promise of amending the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Act, 1991, to end ambiguities about the role of the lieutenant governor is factually wrong.

“Firstly, aid and advice has nothing to do with the GNCTD Act, and it is extremely disappointing that after having promised statehood for Delhi for decades, your party has now gone back on its promise. It appears that this issue has been hurriedly incorporated into your manifesto without any homework or research,” Rai wrote.