New Delhi: The distance between Raj Niwas – the official residence of Delhi Lieutenant Governor – and the Ministry for Home Affairs at the North Block is around 9 km. Even during peak hour traffic, you can travel the distance in 20 minutes flat. But 24 hours after Najeeb Jung’s office announced he has quit as Delhi L-G, officials at MHA say they are yet to receive any resignation letter.
On Friday morning, as all eyes turned to North Block to get the latest on Jung’s abrupt exit, an MHA spokesman told CNN-News18 that no resignation has come to the Union Territory division, which handles Delhi. That was at 9 AM.
A few minutes past 11 AM Minister of State for Home Hansraj Ahir who is in charge of the UT division met home minister Rajnath Singh and repeated that the file had not reached him or the home minister yet.
“Abhi humare table Tak nahi aayi Hai (It is yet to come to my table),” he told CNN-News18. At 1:00 PM, Union Home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi too claimed he was yet to get a copy of the resignation.
Ajay Chowdhary, the OSD of the LG, claimed that the resignation was sent by post. But officials in MHA wondered why a Delhi-to-Delhi resignation was taking so much time when a fax or an e-mail could have done the job.
Meanwhile, Jung met the Prime Minister and sources in PMO said he apprised the PM that he was stepping down because of personal reasons. In his press release on Thursday, Jung had said he was quitting with one and a half years to spare because he wanted to devote more time to his first love, academia.
As per usual procedure, Delhi L-G will have to send his letter to the MHA and the President of India. President Pranab Mukherjee is right now on a trip to Hyderabad and will return to Delhi only next week.
A top bureaucrat told CNN-News18 that for such high offices as the L-G’s office the norm is usually to tender the resignation in person.
AAP sources said LG had told Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal over breakfast on Friday that he had made up his mind on Monday night to resign. However Home Secretary Mehrishi, who met Jung on Tuesday, told CNN-News18 that he was not aware of any such plan of Jung.
“Administration issues about Delhi were discussed on Tuesday and the meeting was to continue on Friday. He didn’t make any mention of resigning,” a source present in the LG-HS meeting told News18.
Various theories have been floating around in Delhi on what could have prompted Jung to resign abruptly. “There is no question of the government nudging the LG to resign. He has resigned for personal reasons. We had no problems with him in two and half years,” MoS Hansraj Ahir told CNN-News18.
With the President in Hyderabad the process of finding a successor to Jung may take time. Sources say he will continue in office till a successor is found. The million-dollar question then is, is Najeeb Jung trying to send a message by keeping government in dark about his decision to quit?
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