“On corruption, the BJP’s record is as bad as the Congress” : Kejriwal
NEW DELHI : Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) member Kumar Vishwas on Sunday said the party had moved away from the path it set out on and has to find the right way forward.
“Don’t you think we have gone somewhere else from where we were moving to five years ago? We have to find the right way,” the AAP leader said.
He also called for introspection on the part of the AAP leadership and cadres. “We should think about ourselves as to where we started five years ago and where we are now.” Kumar was speaking at the Aam Aadmi Party’s national conference on its fifth anniversary at the Ramlila Maidan here, which saw the participation of party representatives from 22 states.
Vishwas said some party leaders do not talk about social activist Anna Hazare, under whose leadership many of the AAP leader participated in the 2011 anti-corruption movement. “Anna was the creator of this campaign.” However, he said, he will not go anywhere and stay in the party.
The India Against Corruption movement led by Anna Hazare had started from Ramlila Maidan, which later led to the birth of the AAP in 2012.AAP , which began in 2012 as a political experiment and shortly went on to sweep the assembly elections in Delhi, completed five years today.
The occasion was marked by a huge rally in Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan, where over 10,000 AAP supporters gathered on the huge grounds outside Red Fort which sees the enactment of Lord Ram’s victory over Ravan every year.
As thousands gathered, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal shared dais with the party’s other founder members — Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Kumar Vishwas — and senior party leaders Ashutosh, Gopal Rai and Atishi Marlena.
The party’s beginning had been rooted in India Against Corruption, the mass movement for a Lokpal bill led by noted Gandhian Anna Hazare. Along the way, it had its share of controversies – from Mr Kejriwal’s stepping down 49 days after winning the election in 2013 as his flagship ombudsman law did not get enough votes to make it in the assembly, to the bitter public feud that ended with the ousting of founder members Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan and the ongoing warfare with the centre over governance.
Today, Mr Kejriwal referred to the party’s core agenda of anti-corruption in a speech peppered with shots aimed at the BJP-led central government. “They were so unnerved with our work that that snatched the Anti-Corruption Bureau from us. They sent paramilitary forces – perhaps for the first time in India’s history like this – and they took over the building.”
“On corruption, the BJP’s record is as bad as the Congress,” he said, citing Vyapam scam, Rafale scam, Birla diaries, Sahara diaries, he said. “Even judges are not safe it seems. Just as you had uprooted the Congress, the time for BJP too is coming,” he added.
In 2015, AAP had scripted a coup by winning 67 of Delhi’s 70 assembly seats, leaving just three for the BJP. But its ascent seemed to stutter as it failed in multiple poll campaigns — including Punjab this year.
A series of public outbursts against Prime Minister Narendra Modi also appeared to dent the popularity of both AAP and Mr Kejriwal. In recent months, the 49-year-old leader has been seen scaling down his attacks on the BJP and the Prime Minister.
