Has Prashant Bhushan's open letter 'bomb' opened a can of worms for Arvind Kejriwal?

New Delhi, April 4: Prashant Bhushan who was recently expelled from Aam Aadmi Party's top decision-making fora, has written an open letter to Delhi Chief Minister and AAP's convenor Arvind Kejriwal opening a can of worms where he has accused him of many things. Here are the highlights of the letter which has levelled many allegations against the AAP chief:

1. After the ouster of Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan from the Aam Aadmi Party's top decision-making fora, a video of Kejriwal's speech at National Council meet came the very next day. Bhushan in his letter said:

"You ordered the release of a carefully-edited version of your speech at the National Council meeting, containing various false charges against us, and carefully editing out the portions showing the hooliganism of the mob. It is in such circumstances that I am having to write this open letter to you.

2. "God and history will not forgive what you are doing to the party."

3. Bhushan also accused the Kejriwal of making "false and inflammatory" allegations against him, his father Shanti Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav at the National Council (NC) meeting on March 28.

4. Amid allegations of hooliganism, Bhushan also said that on that day Kejriwal incited Delhi MLAs to scream that they (Bhushan, his father and yogendra yadav) were "gaddars". he also said that there was no discussion, no secret vote, no showing of votes in the National Council meeting.

5. "After winning the Delhi elections with such a thumping majority, when you have such good fortune, you should be showing your best qualities to the people of this country. But unfortunately, your worst qualities have emerged now."

6. Bhushan has also accused Kejriwal of giving instruction to publish communal posters (surprisingly this para was deliberately omitted by media houses in the full text). Bhushan in the letter said, "A poster accusing the Muslim MLAs of the Congress as being traitors to their religion was got published by Dilip Pandey under your instructions, for which the police arreste Dilip Pandey. At that stage, the party got Amanatullah Khan to send a letter to the police saying that he had git this poster printed, and it was not the party. At that time you yourself tweeted that why is the police arresting Dilip Pandey when they should be arresting Amanatullah Khan. Yet within a week, he was made in charge if the Okhla constituency by the party, promised a ticket and eventually given one! Are such means not unethical?

7. The party founded with a dream of "clean and principled" politics may soon turn into a "nightmare" if things will continue like this.

8. Elaborating on reasons for widening rift with Kejriwal, Bhushan said in his letter that the differences started after the Lok Sabha elections. He said after the Lok Sabha elections, Kejriwal felt that the party was "finished" and could only be revived if it were able to form the government again in Delhi.

9. Bhushan said despite strong opposition from the party leaders, Kejriwal started efforts to get Congress' support to form government which was one of the major reasons of the rift.

10. "Instead of abiding by the majority decision, you said that while that may be the majority view, as the Convenor of the party, you have the right to take the final decision, and that you would go ahead with seeking Congress' support," he said.

11. He alleged that there was conspiracy to crush the "rebellion" of the volunteers who felt that they were being used only like "slave labour". He alleged fabricated SMS was used to defame AVAM. In the letter, Bhushan also slammed Kejriwal for not following laid down norms in candidate selection for Delhi polls.

12. "I had said that rather than winning by these kinds of candidates and means, it's better to go with honourable candidates and run the risk of a possible loss. Because winning with these kinds of candidates and means destroys the founding principles of the party in the short run, and will destroy the party itself in the long run," he said.

OneIndia News

(With inputs from agencies)