Yashwant Sinha joins protest

The fight between the Delhi government and the Lt Governor over IAS officers' "strike" intensified with thousands of AAP leaders and workers marching to the L-G's office where Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his cabinet colleagues had been staging a sit-in since Monday evening.

Former Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha, who resigned from the BJP recently, also joined AAP leaders and workers outside the chief minister's Civil Lines residence from where the protest march proceeded to the L-G's office. Addressing the AAP gathering, Sinha expressed solidarity with Kejriwal and the AAP in their "struggle". 

If former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee were there, he would have directed the home minister to find a solution to the crisis, but the present dispensation was "sleeping", Sinha said, adding that the entire country was concerned with the situation in Delhi. "It would be better for the country if a solution to the crisis in Delhi is found at the earliest," the former Union finance minister said.  

The AAP government's demands to the L-G include a direction to IAS officers to end their "strike", action against those who have struck work for "four months". It has also asked the L-G to approve the proposal for doorstep delivery of rations. 

During the protest march, party leaders and workers raised slogans against the lieutenant governor --- "LG sahab, Delhi Chodo (LG, quit Delhi)".  In view of the protest march, police made appropriate security arrangements. Rajya Sabha MP and senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh said that if the IAS officers give assurance in writing to end their strike and resume work, the AAP will appeal the chief minister and his colleagues to end their sit-in at the L-G office. 

He said that the party would take out a candle light march tomorrow, adding that if the matter was not sorted by Sunday, its leaders and workers would stage a dharna at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). 

Singh warned that the AAP will resort to a massive agitation if no solution is found to the existing situation. The IAS officers' association has maintained that no officer is on strike and no work of the Delhi government has been affected.