Jung nullifies Swati Maliwal's appointment as DCW chief

Maliwal says will abide decision after official communication, but will continue to work for DCW

Two days after Swati Maliwal took charge as the chairperson of Delhi Commission for Women (DCW), Lieutenant  Governor Najib Jung declared the appointment null and void on the basis that he was not consulted about the matter.

To this effect, he has also written a letter to the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Meanwhile, Maliwal has said that she has not received any official communication till now, but will abide by it if she receives one. However, she also went on to say that she would continue to work towards making DCW a better place even when she is not in her current position.

 

Earlier Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party had both criticised Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party government for appointing Maliwal, who is the wife of AAP Haryana MP Navin Jaihind, and a long time member of AAP herself. The opposition parties have accused Kejriwal of nepotism, saying Maliwal was also related to him.

According to a report in the Indian Express , Maliwal had replied to the criticisms, saying, “Suggesting that a woman gets her identity from her husband shows a patriarchal mindset. It is this mindset that we have to work towards changing. I am Naveen Jaihind’s wife but I have been working at the grassroot level in various movements since 2006. I have lived in slums and worked to help flood victims in Bihar. I was the youngest member of the core committee of the India Against Corruption movement. I got married in 2013. That does not discredit all the work I have done in the past.”

A day after taking charge, Maliwal had also declared that the DCW would like to increase the number of lawyers in its Rape Crisis Cell (RCC) to expedite proceedings for ensuring justice in such cases. 

According to the Express  report, she also said that as chairperson, she will set up a committee comprising international, national and state experts to prepare a blueprint for making Delhi a safe city for women. “There are five rapes and 12 molestations reported in Delhi everyday. We will work towards making Delhi so safe that even at midnight, if a woman needs to go somewhere, she should feel absolutely safe.” Maliwal further said the commission will work in harmony with the Centre, the Lieutenant-Governor and the Delhi government. 

She added, “I will not allow the commission to become a political battleground. The DCW will no longer be confined to four rooms. It will be out on the roads and working among the people of Delhi. In eight months we will do more work than was done in the last eight years.”

Even as Jung’s decision might serve as yet another flashpoint in the on-going Jung-Kejriwal turf war, both the Aam Aadmi Party and Kejriwal denied rumours of being related to Maliwal, and defended the decision of her appointment.