Strife within AAP is internal party matter, says Hazare

“It is beyond my understanding why I would want to get involved in the AAP’s internal affairs,” Anna Hazare said. File photo.

Refusing to be drawn into the Aam Aadmi Party’s raging internal strife, anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare, on Saturday, said the fiasco was entirely the AAP’s “internal affair”.

Maintaining his customary intransigence by refusing to comment on matters political, Mr. Hazare parried reporters’ questions on the >ousting of AAP leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan . “It is beyond my understanding why I would want to get involved in the AAP’s internal affairs,” he said.

According to Mr. Hazare’s aides, the contretemps between Mr. Bhushan and Mr. Yadav on one side, and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal on the other has vindicated Mr. Hazare’s consistent stance of refraining drawing in political persons or parties into any popular movement or agitation.

Earlier this month, Mr. Hazare had prohibited participation of any political leader or party in his (now postponed)

padayatra (foot march) to agitate against the Land Bill.

He had specifically turned down Mr. Yadav’s request to participate in the march on grounds that involvement of political personages would only lead to the furtherance of political agendas while taking the spotlight away from the issue at hand.

Likewise, Mr. Hazare had adamantly refused to comment on Kiran Bedi’s defection from the AAP to the BJP prior to the Delhi election and had chosen not to attend Mr. Kejriwal’s swearing-in ceremony in the capital last month. Mr. Bhushan, Mr. Kejriwal and Ms. Bedi were all prominent members of Mr. Hazare’s India Against Corruption (IAC) movement prior to their plunge into politics.