For the second day running, the Opposition attacked and derided the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over its treatment of former ideologues and founder members Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan.
Both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), whose presence is limited to just three legislators in the Delhi Assembly, and the Congress, which couldn’t send even a single representative to the House courtesy the resounding victory clinched by the AAP in the recently-concluded Assembly elections, were unrelenting in their respective assaults.
Meanwhile, the AAP presented diametrically contrasting points of view in relation to Mr. Yadav and Mr. Bhushan’s unceremonious expulsion from the party.
MLA from Karawal Nagar and vice-chairman of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) Kapil Mishra likened the episode to the removal of a tumour, Colonel Devender Sehrawat, the AAP MLA from Bijwasan who was among the eight National Executive (NE) members to have voted against the duo’s expulsion, was sceptical about the decision. “I voted against the proposition; time will decide the correctness of the events today,” he told The Hindu .
>#AAPKaSting Power Hungry PartyParty coning into existence on Lokpal demand- asks it's internal Lokpal not to come for the crucial meeting!
— Ajay Maken (@ajaymaken) >March 28, 2015
Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay said that while differences, division and dissidence within political parties was nothing new, the way Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had “misused his legislative powers” to settle scores with dissent within the AAP was “a new experience.”
“ In democratic polity, differences are common but the way dissidents were heckled & beaten at AAP National Executive meet has never been seen before in Delhi.- Satish Upadhyay, Delhi BJP President ”
“In democratic polity, differences are common but the way dissidents were hackled and beaten at the AAP National Executive meet has never been seen before in Delhi,” Mr. Upadhyay said in a statement.
The respective role played by both Mr. Yadav and Mr. Bhushan in building the AAP, Mr. Upadhyay said, was well known – especially during the party’s recent campaign during the Assembly elections.
“Mr. Yadav held the fort on behalf of the AAP in almost every other television debate; in rural Delhi, too, he worked hard. Thus, when today, after the elections, there is a talk of such leaders stabbing the party in the back in addition to similar allegations being heaped on them, it appears to be a game to politically discredit them,” Mr. Upadhyay added.
Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken described the AAP as a “power hungry party” before proceeding to mock its decision to keep its internal Lokpal away from important deliberations at the meet of the National Executive on Saturday.
“A party that came into existence on the back of the demand for a Lokpal asked its own Lokpal to stay away,” Mr. Maken said. “Mr. Kejriwal is the same man who had declared that anything seemingly corrupt happening around one should be captured on mobile; today, the National Council disallowed members from carrying mobiles to the meeting,” he added.
