The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) lashed out at the Congress and BJP saying that the "impartial" committee recommended by the Supreme Court was not having any mandate to issue the order where the party has been asked to pay `97 crore in violation of Supreme Court guidelines for advertisements.
While addressing a Press conference at the AAP party headquarters, Deputy Chief Minister said the Congress, BJP and their “supporting TV news channels” were misleading the people by portraying this order against the AAP as a “scam” but in reality the SC’s “so-called impartial committee” had no powers to issue such order as the members of this committee are “close affiliation” with the BJP.
Sisodia, who also holds portfolio of Information and Publicity, said the AAP Government was being “selectively targeted” when no questions are being raised on ads issued by other State Governments.
Sisodia added that the AAP Government did not splurge money, but tried to communicate the “good work” done by it to the people. He also appeared defiant and said the AAP Government would "continue to engage with people" through ads despite the recovery suit.
Earlier this week, lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal had directed that `97 crore be recovered from AAP that was allegedly “splurged” by the city Government on advertisements in violation of the Supreme Court guidelines, following the recommendations of the Centre-appointed three-member panel.
The three-member committee comprised adman Piyush Pandey, journalist Rajat Sharma and former Chief Election Commissioner BB Tandon.
“The SC guidelines did not give any such power to the committee to order recovery of ad spending of any Government. The court had also ordered that the committee should comprise of people with impeachable neutrality and impartiality. However, two members of the committee have close links with the BJP. Everyone knows how impartial they could be,” Sisodia said.
Without naming former Chief Minister Sheila Dixit, Sisodia said even she held a business summit in london. "Other State Governments also organise events in five star hotels outside their States," Sisodia said.
He remained non-committal on how the party would respond to the recovery notice. "We will inform you about (our) legal course," he said.
Hitting out at the BJP without naming the party, Sisodia said the recovery notice was being issued after the AAP announced to abolish residential house tax if it came to power in the MCD.