AAP fiasco: Why is the AAP hiding?

Following allegations of corruption the AAP which came to power on an anti-corruption plank, seems to be acting contrary to its stated principles.

While the accusations of corruption and wrongdoing against the Aam Aadmi Party, which was born out of an anti-corruption movement, keep rising in number, the supporters of the movement and the party would have hoped for a different reaction from it than what they accused other political parties led by 'corrupt' leaders of giving in similar circumstances.

Now when it is surrounded by allegations of impropriety, made by one of its own leaders, who till a couple of days ago was a cabinet minister in the party's government in the state of Delhi, it seems the same reaction of avoiding answering charges levied against them, which the party used to accuse others of giving, are being used by the AAP.

The latest accusations even include those of personal corruption by the Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and others, on charges such as shielding of accused in the water tanker scam, a land deal worth Rs 50 crores, money laundering etc.

And instead of facing these allegations head on and explaining their side, the party has chosen to reply to them by making another set of accusations on an unrelated issue. AAP seems to now be resorting to tactics of deflection and avoiding the issue.

The timing of calling a special session just for the purpose of showing what the party is calling as proof of tampering of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM), an issue that the party has been raising following defeats in recent assembly and municipal elections, itself raises doubts at the parties intentions as it comes just a day after it got into fresh trouble.

But such a move should not be entirely surprising given that the party has defended all it leaders who have been accused in different cases ever since it came to power by mainly claiming them to be a conspiracy by the opposition parties. But even now when the allegations come from a former minister and are targeted at the chief minister himself, the party has chosen to call its former leader a BJP agent.

Rather than resorting to such methods as it has if the claims are false as the party says, would it not have been easier to counter them by giving proof of innocence, and even better if they had done so at the same session that they called with such urgency.

The issue of such charges being serious does not only rise from who are they being made by and against. The concern comes from the fact that since coming to power in 2015, around 15 of its members including ministers have been accused, charged, or arrested in relation to a wide variety of cases. And now such allegations have landed up at the chief minister's door.

And instead of dealing with such cases with transparency, as they used to demand of other political parties, the party has again chosen to play the victim and conspiracy card rather than proving such accusations wrong.

OneIndia News