We have left the shadow of AAP behind: Yogendra, Bhushan

Allahabad, May 16: Asserting that they have "left the shadow of AAP behind", its expelled founding leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, who have regrouped under the banner of 'Swaraj Abhiyan', today said that their "fight against corruption and policies which are leading to skewed employment generation and agrarian crisis" would continue.

Addressing a joint press conference after holding a 'Swaraj Samvad' here - a dialogue with common citizens with regard to the problems of everyday governance, Yadav, Bhushan and Anand Kumar did not rule out forming an alternative political outfit at a later stage "if the need arises". "We have left the shadow of Aam Aadmi Party behind.

At present, we are not interested in forming a party. If the need arises we may float an outfit in future but in that case we would be moving cautiously, avoiding traps like high command culture and personality cult which the AAP has fallen into," they said in reply to a query. "...Right now our emphasis is on channelling the deep resentment within the society which finds cheated by every successive government," they said.

Strongly criticising the Narendra Modi government at the Centre for having "captured power on the issue of corruption against the Congress regime, only to abandon it and divert all attention to unbridled liberalisation and privatisation", the Swaraj Abhiyan leaders also came down heavily on the Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh for "allowing graft and nepotism to flourish on a scale unprecedented in history".

Earlier, speaking during the Swaraj Samvad meeting, Bhushan launched a scathing attack on the Modi government and alleged that its policies "reminded one of Russia immediately after the fall of the Soviet Union where private enterprise and growth rate were touted as a panacea".

"Given that our investigative agencies continue to be toothless and at the beck and call of governments at the Centre or in the states, only effective deterrents like a strong Lokpal can prevent the country from witnessing plunder of public wealth like in Russia of 1990s," he said.

PTI