Soft PR, ‘samosa’ swipe: How Arvind Kejriwal’s ‘soldiers’ justified Raghav Chadha’s ‘demotion’ in Rajya Sabha | India News
Raghav Chadha and Saurabh Bharadwaj (R) (File Ph
NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party’s internal rifts burst into full public view on Friday when MP Raghav Chadha reacted to his removal as the party’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha with a scathing counterattack from senior colleagues.Leaders including Delhi AAP chief Sourav Bharadwaj and IT cell chief Anurag Dhanda called themselves “Arvind Kejriwal ke Sepahi”, defended the leadership’s decision and justified the ‘undressing’ of the chadha in the Upper House.
Read more- AAP cracks open: Attack on Raghav Chadha’s leadership; The party hits backBharadwaj launched a pointed attack, accusing Chadha of engaging in “soft PR” instead of taking on the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government. Taking a dig at one of Chadha’s parliamentary interventions, he said, “A small party gets very limited time there, and it is more important to raise the real issues of the country instead of talking about samosas.”He added, “Whenever there is an issue and the opposition goes on a walkout, you don’t join the walkout. In the last few years, I have not seen you raise any issue in Parliament where you have questioned the Prime Minister or the BJP government. How can the politics of fear continue like this?”Questioning Chadha’s role as a Rajya Sabha member from Punjab, Bharadwaj said, “You are elected from Punjab, and you hesitate to even raise Punjab’s issues. Recently in Gujarat, around 160 party workers were booked in false cases and many were arrested, yet you remained silent on that too.”Adding to the criticism, he invoked a past episode involving the party leadership. “When many of our leaders were in jail and Arvind Kejriwal ji as chief minister was arrested in false cases, you were not even in the country, you went somewhere and were away.”The party’s IT cell chief Anurag Dhanda also launched a scathing attack, accusing Raghav Chadha of failing to fulfill his duties in the interest of the party. Pointing to the nature of the issues raised by Chadha in Parliament, he said, “In Parliament, the party gets little time to talk – in that, we can either struggle to save the country or haggle over cheap samosas in airport canteens.”Dhanda escalated his criticism by questioning Chadha’s political stance and determination. If someone is afraid of Modi, will they fight for the country? He said that the Chadha chief was accused of avoiding taking a strong stand on national issues. He pointed to several examples to support his allegations, including silence on the arrest of party workers in Gujarat, inaction on voting rights concerns in West Bengal and refusal to support a motion against the Chief Election Commissioner.He further accused Chadha of staying back in the House during the party walkout, adding, “For the past few years, you have been scared, Raghav. You hesitate to speak against Modi. You hesitate to speak on the real issues of the country,” before ending with a pointed remark: “Whoever fears…”
