Vishwas says he was punished by AAP for speaking the truth
Slams Kejriwal, calls his behaviour disrespectful to the tens of thousands of supporters of the party
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) founding member Kumar Vishwas has hit out at party supremo Arvind Kejriwal, saying that the party does not belong to “a coterie of two-three persons” but to the hundreds of thousands of its workers.
Vishwas, who was appearing in Rajat Sharma’s show Aap Ki Adalat, telecast yesterday on India TV, said: “Two or three persons may be speaking out against me, the common party worker may be addressing any leader as ‘ji’, but he addresses me as ‘Kumar bhaiya’ [big brother].
On January 3 when the AAP named veteran leader Sanjay Singh, businessman Sushil Gupta and chartered accountant Narain Dass Gupta as its debutants for the Rajya Sabha, Vishwas had expressed his disappointment over not being considered for the Upper House and claimed he was being “punished” for speaking the truth.
Poet-turned-politician Vishwas in the TV show listed out several instances in the recent past when he was sidelined by the party leadership.
“In Punjab, I had written poems against drug trafficking. I requested our leaders at least five to six times to allow me to campaign there, but I was not allowed to campaign in Punjab. I was told that the ‘fanatic movement’ in Punjab was unhappy with me.”
In Delhi, AAP did not lose MCD [Municipal Corporation of Delhi] polls because of me, there were deficiencies in the party’s .... strategy, he added.
Anti-Modi sentiment
The dissident AAP leader said he had opposed Kejriwal when he had demanded that the Narendra Modi government must produce evidence of the surgical strike against Pakistan.
“I told him [Kejriwal] it was a question of our troops’ morale, and he replied, ‘Modi should go first, then everything will be okay’. This was his outlook ...
He said the question was not of being denied ticket to Rajya Sabha but for the last seven months, he that had been reduced to “a mere pawn”.