The rebel faction of AAP, led by Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, has started mobilising volunteers for the upcoming Swaraj Samwad dialogue prompting a section of the party to issue a veiled warning to workers saying attending the meeting would be considered “indiscipline”.
The group is using social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to publicise the scheduled dialogue on Ambedkar Jayanti. However, the Yadav-Bhushan camp maintains that they don’t want to create “unnecessary hype”.
“What is your assessment of where the movement stands todayIJ What should be the future direction of our movementIJ How should we proceed after April 14IJ” reads the Facebook page of the initiative. The build-up to the event is also witnessing a volley of allegations and counter-allegations with the dissident camp accusing Arvind Kejriwal loyalists of trying to scuttle the event.
“The irony is that the party, which has always professed dialogues, is scared of a dialogue organised by the volunteers themselves,” a leader said. AAP leader Anand Kumar had earlier accused the party leadership of threatening members willing to attend the April 14 meeting, of “disciplinary” action.
“It has been told by a newly-appointed spokesperson of my party that anyone attending the Swaraj Samwad will be subjected to disciplinary action by AAP leader... Please avoid being dictatorial and trust the mind power and force of truth,” he had said.
Although party spokesperson Adarsh Shastri denied the allegations saying, “We don’t know what is happening on April 14. Not warned either.” However, he added that the party may consider it as “indiscipline if any office bearer goes for any such event”. Shastri is in the 20-member panel of the newly-appointed spokespersons of the party.
Another senior party spokesman said the party had not taken “any such position”. Yadav and Bhushan, who were expelled from the party’s National Executive along with Kumar and Ajit Jha on March 28, have convened a meeting of their supporters on April 14 to chart the future course of action, amid speculations that they may a float a new political party.
In an open letter to Arvind Kejriwal, Bhushan said that said “God and history will not forgive what you are doing to the party. After winning the Delhi elections with such a thumping majority, when you have such good fortune, you should be showing your best qualities to the people of this country. But unfortunately, your worst qualities have emerged now,” Bhushan had said.