Delhi Assembly Speaker joins AAP protest outside CBI office, BJP guns for him

New Delhi: Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel has found himself in the crosshairs of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a day after joining the Aam Aadmi Party’s protest outside the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) office.

Launching a scathing attack on Delhi Assembly Speaker, the BJP raised questions over his ‘bypassing’ the rule books and joining the ‘street protest’ of a political party.

Ram Niwas Goel was seen sitting outside the CBI office, along with AAP ‘s top leaders and lending his voice against Centre’s alleged witch-hunt against party & its supremo Arvind Kejriwal.

The CBI had called AAP convenor Kejriwal for questioning in Delhi excise policy, now-revoked, which allegedly benefitted liquor mafias to tunes of crores.

Barkha Shukla Singh, the Vice-President of Delhi BJP unit tweeted a picture of Delhi Speaker on sit-in protest with AAP leaders and raised questions on him joining a political dharna.

“Speaker is taking political sides by sitting on dharna with AAP leaders, no respect for the Constitution,” she wrote.

Politically neutral constitutional authority – speaker of Delhi assembly @RamNiwasGoelAap taking political sides AAP party by sitting on dharna with AAP party leaders. No respect for constitution. Declared himself above the constitution. pic.twitter.com/MV7bPh4LfK

— Barkha Shukla Singh (@barkhasingh45) April 16, 2023

Posing a direct question, she asked whether the Speaker considers himself above the Constitution or has there been a complete disregard for constitutional authorities in AAP government.

While Kejriwal reached CBI office for interrogation on Sunday, he was flanked by top AAP leaders, legislators & parliamentarians, thus projecting it as a show of strength. This also drew sharp reactions from Opposition BJP & Congress, as they trained guns at Chief Minister for making it a ‘publicity event’ rather than facing the investigative agencies.

This is one of the rare events where a Constitutional Authority took part in demonstration, with a political party.

In 2018 also, Speaker Ram Niwas found himself at the receiving end, as he extended support to ruling party in the AAP-LG tussle and wore a black band.

It is likely that BJP will raise this matter strongly in the House. For the unversed, Speaker is the Constitutional authority and once elected to the post, his ties with party gets severed and he is expected to be partisan & unbiased in his conduct.