NEW DELHI:In politics, it’s what isn’t said that matters. Right now, a lot is being said about Aam Aadmi Party, the party which emerged from the India Against Corruption movement two years ago. A party holding the baton to change politics is now being torn apart with two factions crying “murder of democracy”.
The mess in AAP is out in the open after two founding members Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan and their supporters Anand Kumar and Ajit Jha were ‘kicked out’ from the national executive for their ‘anti-party activities’ on Saturday.
The day started with the 392-member national executive meet of the party to discuss and vote on the fate of Yadav and Bhushan, whose expulsion was being demanded by national convener of the party Arvind Kejriwal — whom the duo dubbed ‘autocratic’ a day earlier.
The Lokpal of the party, Admiral Ram Das, wrote a letter in which he mentioned a text message that he received from the General Secretary Pankaj Gupta asking him to stay away from the meeting to “avoid confrontation”. The meeting was attended by 311 invited members, with party MLA’s and MP’s also attending among a large crowd of supporters. Members who failed to show identification, mobile number, and SMS invite were denied entry. Yadav, who sat on dharna for around 20 minutes for not allowing him inside, said A visibly upset Yadav said, “It was a murder of democracy. Everything played out according to a script.”
Meanwhile, activist Medha Patkar resigned from the party saying, “Yogendra, Bhushan never worked against party.” She added that the party has reduced itself to a “tamasha”.