Responding to Aam Aadmi Party’s open letter against senior leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, the duo issued a joint statement on Wednesday giving a point-by-point clarification. They also requested for an inquiry on the issue. Their rebuttal also raised questions about the ‘unilateral decisions’ by national convener Arvind Kejriwal.
In the letter written to volunteers, the duo said, “Kejriwal was adamant on formation of Government. We opposed this and insisted that it would send a very wrong signal to the volunteers across the country, as the Congress has recently been rejected by Delhi voters completely. However, Kejriwal went ahead with his efforts to form the Government and he continued till a month prior to elections.”
The leaders spoke against the allegation that they were releasing confidential communications. They said that if they wanted to do so they could have made public some secret papers which would have harmed the party severely. “It was also very strange that after the lok Sabha elections, Sisodia, Sanjay and Ashutosh demanded that all members of PAC should put in their papers so that Kejriwal could restructure new PAC. Even demands were made to disband national executive also. So it was pertinent to oppose those unconstitutional moves,” they said.
They subsequently also rejected allegations that they wanted to remove Kejriwal from the post of national convener saying they had opposed any such move instead. “In the NE meeting held on February 26, when we came to know that Arvind Kejriwal has offered his resignation from the post of national convener, we both vehemently opposed that,” they said.
The letter also raises questions on the party’s expansion plans saying Kejriwal had taken a ‘unilateral’ decision not to contest Assembly elections in Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana. “Though, the decision of not contesting the elections in those States proved to be right, however, question still persists over what would be the right approach to take such decisions in future,” it said.
Yadav and Bhushan also slammed the party’s decision to give ticket to Amanatullah, who was accused by police of mongering communal tension and whose arrest Kejriwal had subsequently demanded. Bhushan and Yadav also rebuffed allegations of having developed a soft corner for AVAM volunteer Karan Singh.
The letter also rubbished charges that Yadav planted the stories in media which harmed the party. “Other journalists present in the meeting have written their articles and have straightforwardly denied to have been being briefed by Yogendra. If they were briefed, then why other journalists did not write their pieces,” the statement questioned. The duo also put out a disclaimer saying that the views expressed in the letter did not include Shanti Bhushan’s as their “views do not match with Shanti Bhushan... So it would be better to get his views from him only,” they said.