While MlA from Rohini Rajesh Garg jolted the ranks of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) questioning its internal party democracy, the defending fledgling party which has witnessed several strong voices of dissidence lately, was found hoping against hope on Monday. AAP leaders did not rule out the possibility that the MlA’s Facebook profile was hacked, however, speaking to The Pioneer, Garg confirmed that the open letter was indeed written by him.
Reacting to the fresh criticism by the party’s senior and active member, AAP leaders Sanjay Singh and Ashutosh, on Monday, said that Garg had not officially communicated about his views with the party’s top leadership. In fact, they are considering that the open letter might not be the AAP MlA’s words at all as the Facebook profile in which Garg had written the letter on Sunday evening might be hacked. “He (Rajesh Garg) has not sent any letter to our convener Arvind Kejriwal or others. So we are giving him the benefit of doubt. We are considering that his profile might have been hacked by some element who wants to break AAP,” said Sanjay Singh, a party spokesperson.
When asked if the party was planning to take any action against Garg, another leader Ashutosh said, “Our leadership will react only if we get an official communication from Garg. No action will be taken against him as everybody’s views are welcome in our party.”
Meanwhile, Garg who is currently “out of station” said, “The letter was indeed written by me. I had to leave Delhi as I am facing life threat from BJP MPs and owners of a publishing house. He, however, maintained that he still supported Kejriwal and had no plans of leaving the party.
Garg had questioned Arvind Kejriwal about the internal party democracy and also on whether the former Delhi Chief Minister should have consulted people on conducting fresh polls in Delhi. In the letter he had also batted for not conducting fresh polls in the national Capital as it would mean a loss of `1,000 crore of public money.
“When you (Kejriwal) demand dissolution of Delhi legislative Assembly, you don’t know what an elected representative, irrespective of his party he belongs to, your party volunteers go through. Under the Swaraj policy, if you would have asked people whether they want elections or not, a right message would have gone among the people,” wrote Garg, in his open letter to AAP chief Kejriwal on his Facebook wall.
AAP has been demanding dissolution of Delhi legislative Assembly ever since Kejriwal resigned on February 14, this year. He said the party should not be adamant on re-election and should save the Delhi people from additional burden of `1,000 crore, which would be spent on election.
Garg also slammed Kejriwal for his decision to quit as Chief Minister and said that had he consulted people before resigning, the party MlAs would not have felt helpless in serving people and the party would have been in the government today. “Can’t we sit in the opposition and still not do a better jobIJ We should also look at one possibility that in an event of an election if no one gets a clear mandate then how will we face the peopleIJ There should be a Government in Delhi irrespective of whichever party forms one. We are here to serve people honestly and not to play politics,” he said.
Targeting Kejriwal, he asked him not to encourage corrupt and rich people in the party. He also questioned the party chief over for not taking up the land scam issue of a BJP MP. Earlier, Yogendra Yadav and Shazia Ilmi have also criticised the Kejriwal-led AAP.