This refers to the report, “Kejriwal sacks Women Development Minister Sandeep over sex tape” (September 1). It looks like times are bleak for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Just when infighting rocked its Punjab unit, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal had to sack his Minister Sandeep Kumar after he was caught in a compromising position with a woman in a CD.
The AAP has always stood for morality in public life but had never defined the content of such morality and whether having an affair went against the party’s moral values. Partly, it also could be because that the party did not wish to be seen as out of line with the essential conservatism that still prevails in the Indian society.
The AAP is not unique in facing this awkward moment. When a heady movement matures into a political party, the existing forces try their best to discredit it. It will have to re-invent its organisational structure while ensuring that its founding principles remain intact.