There appears to be no end in sight to the standoff between the Arvind Kejriwal government and Delhi bureaucrats in the wake of the alleged assault on the state chief secretary at the chief minister's residence last week.
On Monday, the officials decided to continue with their protest and demanded an apology from Kejriwal as the first step for any reconciliation talks to begin.
“We want a written apology from the chief minister. Instead of apologising for the incident, the chief minister and the deputy chief minister are in denial. This shows they are part of the conspiracy,” said Pooja Joshi of the Joint Forum of Delhi Government Employees.
Joshi addressed a press conference after a meeting of the officers' associations called to discuss the offer of talks made by the Delhi government, with Kejriwal deputing Social Welfare Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam to talk to the agitating officers.
Joshi said it was decided that the officers will work through formal written means of communication and continue their protest in the form of five minutes' silence at 1:30pm in all government offices till an apology is tendered by the chief minister and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.
The joint forum of the Delhi government employees passed a resolution at the meeting demanding that the prerequisite to any dialogue with the political executive is a specific written and public apology from Kejriwal and Sisodia.
The officers also noted in the resolution that since the chief minister and the deputy chief minister are specifically identified in the FIR lodged with regard to the alleged attack on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash, they appealed to Lt Governor Anil Baijal and the commissioner of police to take action against them as per law.
The officials also noted that not only has the Kejriwal government failed to condemn or regret the alleged assault on Prakash, more incidents of public representatives misbehaving with and threatening government servants had taken place in the intervening period.
“... and sadly, an open threat by an hon'ble MLA was given in the presence of the hon'ble CM and the CM has made no statement condemning the same,” the resolution said.
Officers in Delhi are in protest mode since the chief secretary was allegedly beaten up by two MLAs of the Aam Aadmi Party at a midnight meeting at Kejriwal's residence on February 19.
Concerned over work getting affected, especially as the developments come days before the state budget has to be presented, the Delhi government has made peace overtures to the officials, and Gautam has been deputed to talk to them.