KK Sethi

Good news that the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Act has been amended. In fact the amendment also should have been to remove the designation ‘Chief Minister’. It gives the false notion of being equivalent to the Chief Minister in such States as Maharashtra and/or Karnataka. In fact, when first appointed as Chief Minister of Delhi, which is the National Capital Territory of Delhi and not a State, Arvind Kejriwal believed he was made the Chief Minister of India. His full page advertisements, together with his photograph, appeared in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and elsewhere – and of course Dilli. The correct designation would be Chief Executive Officer or Chairman.

Chaudhary Brahm Parkash was the first chief minister of Dilli from 1952 to 1955. Dilli was then Part C State. Later the Legislative Assembly was abolished in 1956 and Metropolitan Council introduced in 1966 whose chief was Chief Executive Officer (also called Chairman of the Council). It had 56 elected and 5 nominated members.

Postscript:

Comments on this are flowing on social media.

We are sharing a few:

Comment 1

The Metropolitan Council of Delhi had no legislative powers. It was only a recommendatory body.

Author’s response

Exactly. That is how it should be. Otherwise, it creates difficulties with people like Kejriwal. Remember there was no confrontation when Dixit was there with BJP government or Khurana was there with Congress government.

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KK Sethi, a retired IAS officer, is highly respected for his commitment to the larger cause of society. He has held several important posts and was Chief Secretary Manipur and President Board of Revenue in Madhya Pradesh. As Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities, he had presented to the President of India, the forty-fourth Annual Report under Article 350- B (2) of the Constitution. For the implementation of the constitutional provisions and Nationally Agreed Scheme of Safeguards provided to linguistic minorities