My comments posted on THE HINDU website article:
AAP leaders stay away from rebel meeting in Gurgaon
'Veteran Journalist Kuldip Nayyar, also sent out a message said that “insulting” people like Mr. Bhushan and Mr. Yadav was a big mistake.' What if the leaders themselves were asking for it. There is a time for everything. While Kejriwal was fully occupied with Delhi Assembly elections, was that the time for the august moralists to not just advise, but to take negative steps to sabotage AAP's election efforts. The struggle for supremacy in the party hierarchy was too open to be missed. Those who had less than full commitment to party politics, should not either have joined the AAP as political party, or would have declared from the beginning to remain as outsider pressure group monitoring AAP performance. To personalize the entire episode in a divisive manner and then expect others to keep calm without reacting is a very naive exercise. Just as the so-called group of volunteers have an immediate opinion and stake in AAP; so do a big majority of voters of India have stakes. Can't ignore!
Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
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AAP leaders stay away from rebel meeting in Gurgaon
PTI
Rebel AAP leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan. File photo
A number of AAP leaders and prominent individuals on Tuesday stayed away from the convention of party rebels Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan and chose to express solidarity through written statements instead.
AAP Patiala MP Dharamvira Gandhi, who had earlier faced the leadership’s ire for taking stand in favour of the dissidents, in a letter stressed the need to work towards strengthening the party’s core ideals.
“The need of these challenging times is to stay true to the party’s founding ideals and foundational principles and to dispassionately debate all the ideological and organisational issues to prevent the deviation of AAP which has become a symbol of alternative politics,” he said.
In the letter, addressed to the volunteers, he also sought to remind them that it was their “right” to act as a watchdog over the party’s decisions emphasising that they were in the AAP not for any individual but for its principles.
Mr. Gandhi alleged that his effigies were burnt and a negative publicity was unleashed against him including labelling him as a “traitor”.
Meanwhile, Christina Samy, another expelled national executive member, social activists Aruna Roy, Medha Patkar, who had recently quit AAP, were also conspicuous by their absence from the Gurgaon meet.
In her message, read out by a Chennai-based AAP worker, Ms. Samy said, “I am with you all in this struggle for Swaraj”.
Clarifying that he is “not from and has never” been part of the AAP, activist Nikhil Dey read out Ms. Roy’s message.
“We will have to make sure that common man has full stake in democracy. Alternative politics should be accountable, transparent and one that responds to people,” she said.
Veteran Journalist Kuldip Nayyar, also sent out a message said that “insulting” people like Mr. Bhushan and Mr. Yadav was a big mistake.
