Tomar fake degree case: AAP MLA hits out at leadership

New Delhi, Jun 13: Aam Aadmi Party MLA Pankaj Pushkar today lashed out at the top leadership of the party over its handling of the Jitender Tomar issue and asked Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to "apologise" to the people.

Pushkar, who had publicly sided with ousted AAP leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, said that the party should have acted against Tomar when the issue had first come to light.

"The facts came to light four months back. Why did not the party take action against him back then? If the leadership had paid heed to few voices, then this situation could have been avoided.

"The biggest damage has been inflicted on public trust. The party and Arvind Kejriwal should definitely apologise to the people of Delhi," Pushkar told PTI.

The Timarpur MLA said that the party should have a mechanism of "self-disclosure" instead of waiting for outside forces to compel it to disclose something. "The other cases involving Vishesh Ravi (Karol Bagh MLA), Surinder Singh (Delhi Cantt MLA) should be acted upon.

In case of doubt, one should go for immediate self-disclsoure," he said. Pushkar said he would continue to raise his voice against apparent deviations from the principles of Swaraj, transparency and ethics by the party.

"I do not fear any action against me. But I cannot go against my principles," he said. He also extended his full support to the Swaraj Abhiyaan movement launched by Yadav and Bhushan.

PTI