Major surgery appears to have been carried out on the AAP by the Kejriwal camp, with party founders, Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, being shown the door (“ >Kejriwal tightens grip on AAP ,” March 30). Now, with the removal of Admiral (retd.) Ramdas from the Lokpal, Mr. Kejriwal seems to have sent out a strong signal that nobody is indispensable. The internal bickering seems to be a replay of a never-ending feud. In the case of the AAP, the saying, ‘power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely’ has become ‘power leads to arrogance and the absolute power leads to absolute arrogance’. If people had foreseen that the AAP would be no different from the other parties, its fate in the election would have been quite different.
K.V. Seetharamaiah,
Hassan
Though the stalemate in the AAP will most certainly cause distress to its genuine followers and the common man who made sacrifices to install a government of their choice, not once but twice, I would ask them not to be disheartened. The crisis consuming the AAP should not be seen as a downslide of the civil society movement. What is happening appears to stem from the egotistical stances of non-conformists.
Madan Menon Thottasseri,
Chennai
The AAP appears to have started its journey towards a state of monarchy. It is evident from Mr. Kejriwal’s statements that he is autocratic and is least inclined towards democracy. If the party is to remain in power, the leadership, or whatever is left of it, must foster the principles of democracy from within.
Faiyyaj M. Shaikh,
Pune
The peremptory dismissal of the members who have contributed significantly to the growth of the AAP, and who have stoutly defended the party against political and media criticism at various times, is a disastrous step. Information in the public domain does not make them guilty of anti-party activities except that they had differing views and were keen on streamlining and strengthening the organisation.
People like me who pinned their hopes on the AAP scaling up its Delhi experiment all over India to cleanse the Augean stables of Indian politics, are now disillusioned.
V. Nagarajan,
Chennai
The rift within the AAP may bring a smile to the faces of our national parties, but it saddens a true believer of democracy. Freedom from corruption, accountability, transparency in electoral funding, decentralisation of power, empowerment of democracy through referendums, bringing political parties under the RTI, autonomy to the CBI… are all brilliant ideas that shouldn’t be lost on us, even if the leaders who floated them lose their way. The nation would have been different had some of these ideas been taken up by our national parties. For someone like me who voted for the AAP last time, it’s now back to the same old choices. I am glad one still has the NOTA option.
Dinesh K.R.,
Kozhikode
