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.
(continued......when i came home after my brother had stood bail for me, i found my flat locked. on enquiring, i was told that my flat was locked by the treasurer of my housing society and the police constable. the treasurer unlocked the door and to my surprise i found that a lenovo laptop that i had purchased from a second hand computer dealer just a couple of days earlier was missing although my older laptop (toshiba) was left in place. the treasurer is still 'serving' the society in the same capacity and if he is subjected to police interrogation i am sure that the whereabouts of my laptop will be known even after these three years have elapsed. i found that i was charged under u/s 85 of the bombay prohibition act vide section 251 (2) of the criminal procedure code. i live on the benefaction of my brother and therefore could not hire a thoroughly independent lawyer and had to depend on a cheap lawyer and on 22 january, was found guilty. i refused to accept the judgement because neither of the two policemen who testified in court and the doctor from the sassoon hospital were the originals who had actually taken part in my arrest. also the prosecution totally failed to produce any witnesses. and the magistrate quite conveniently attributed the absence of witnesses, what can be construed by the layman, to the 'understandable' reason that witnesses find it embarrassing etc.today the shop in question has become two shops. another shop owner took the opportunity of the usual turmoil of electioneering in may of 2014 (lok sabha elections) and has also illegally converted his shop which is right adjacent to the office of a ncp corporator. it is mentioned in mr prashant bushan's article that the police arrest merely because there is an allegation against the person arrested. the fact is that the police are susceptible to bullying , bribery and the power of the rich. i was then 64 years of age and today at the age of 67 i face the prospect of going to prison. i do not mind . but i request the the police commissioner , the head of the khondwa police station to atleast return my lenovo laptop because the accessory to the theft is still the treasurer of my housing society on nibm road, khondwa, pune. if this letter is printed, as i wish it would, i am sure the cops will find a friendly magistrate to cancell my bail which would be all to the good because i cannot afford a private doctor and do not have the energy to go to a public hospitals for removal of kidney stones and do something about my expanded bladder. this is the country we are living in. i am told often that i deserve to suffer for being too moralistic. this by my own family and neighbours. the present managing committee consists of person who are all guilty of similar crimes who were bailed out by the regular regularisation of such illegallities. i think our sense of morality is too circumcised because we are too diverse, linguistically, culturally and are caste-ridden.