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Vijaya Pushkarna
Vijaya Pushkarna

INFIGHTING

AAP leaders almost break up but make up

PTI5_3_2017_000082B Delhi Dy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia with party leader Kumar Vishwas addressing the media | PTI

Aam Admi Party leader Kumar Vishwas is a poet. His gift of the gab has had youth enthralled, and even led them into the party. At the heart of his poems and speeches, and political exchanges, are his views, stripped of anything the party may want or not want.

Ahead of the crucial MCD elections—which the AAP incidentally lost—Vishwas had released a 13-minute video with his thoughts on a wide range of subjects, some general, some meant for his party leaders, particularly Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

In it, among other things, he attributes the divisions in the country to people's preference for political leaders. Instead of Modi-Modi, Arvind-Arvind, Rahul-Rahul or Indira is India, he tells them to think of the country. Governments  and leaders will last for a short while, but the country will last for thousands of years, he points out.

Another Vishwas thought: If you are voted on the plank of anti-corruption,and you keep quiet when your own people indulge in corruption, people will question you.

He reacts to the video of CRPF men being heckled by a mob in Kashmir, and says “If you are elected on the plank of nationalism, and your nation's sons are attacked, you will be questioned”.

The Kulbhushan Jadhav episode, too, finds mention.

All this by Kumar Vishwas added to the woes of AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal, who was reeling under the party's electoral losses in Punjab, Goa and most recently home turf Delhi. Even as Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia first blamed the EVMs for their set back, the poet-leader suggested introspection—which the party did attempt.

But by then, Amanatullah Khan, MLA from Okhla, quit the Political Affairs Committee of AAP saying there was a slur campaign against him. He also charged Kumar Vishwas with being an agent of the RSS-BJP, and thus attempting to pull down Kejriwal & Co. Khan also accused Vishwas of offering Rs 30 crores each to some AAP legislators to join the BJP!

That was a charge that Vishwas would not take lightly. He told the media he was not an agent of the RSS, that he had no ambitions and would decide his next course of action. He also made references to the manner in which their former colleagues Prashant Bhushan and Yogender Yadav were shown the door by the party.

This rattled Kejriwal enough to sit up, take note of what Vishwas was saying, and reach out to him.

Though critical of Vishwas going to the media with his views, Kejriwal and Sisodia met him twice in 24 hours. By the end of it, Khan had been suspended, and Vishwas honourably named the leader in charge of Rajasthan. The state goes to polls next year end. 

For now, peace has returned to the party where members were running in circles, not knowing how to deal with defeat, and the man who shows them what defeat is. And for the second time since his party lost the MCD, Kejriwal appears to be doing whatever it takes to keep the party afloat, by taking inner party criticism in his stride. The first was when he held a serious introspection meeting with MLAs and told them to continue on their path of anti-corruption, and fulfillment of promises made to people.

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Topics : #AAP

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