Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has alleged that a day-long strike by bureaucrats serving in the Delhi government is an attempt by the Centre to destabilise his government.

“The Central government and the Prime Minister are not combating me directly politically. Sometimes, they shoot from the ACB’s [Anti-Corruption Bureau’s] shoulder, from [ACB chief] Mukesh Meena’s shoulder, then from the Lieutenant-Governor’s and now from the officers,” Mr. Kejriwal said in an interview to The Hindu.

“I met the Prime Minister sometime last August or September and told him that I would implement all your pet schemes like Swachch Bharat and Yoga promotion, just let me work without interference. He hasn’t done that,” he said. Asked how this bitterness between him and the Centre could be ended, Mr. Kejriwal said: “The Prime Minister should allow us to work, that’s it. The bitterness can finish in two minutes. The Prime Minister needs only to call the Lt. Governor and tell him not to put obstacles in our work and hand over the ACB to us. These are the two things we want. I’m the quarter-sized Chief Minister of a half-state, he is the ruler of the entire country, why is he after me?”

Mr. Kejriwal said he termed Mr. Modi a “coward” for specific reasons. “If I fire from someone else’s shoulder, I think it’s a cowardly act. Himmat hai to aankh main aankh daal ke baat karo (look me in the eye and talk to me if you dare),” he said. He alleged that the officers who went on strike got instructions from PMO officials. “A meeting of officers was held here last night [Wednesday] for over five hours on the seventh floor. Some of the officers who attended told me that the LG was throughout on speaker phone from Goa, and in turn he was in touch with the Union Home Secretary and Nripendra Misra from the PMO. He was getting instructions and conveying it to them,” Mr. Kejriwal said.

“So when the LG, Home Secretary and PMO officials attend meetings of officers who then call a strike the next day, then you can imagine that there is an attempt to destabilise the government by the PMO,” he said.

Hours before his anti-pollution odd-even scheme being schematically allowed on Delhi roads, Mr. Kejriwal said he was looking at the strike by officers as an opportunity to get “professional sector experts to work in the government.”

Read the full interview: " >Bureaucrats are all scared, CBI is harassing them"