Arvind Kejriwal faces crisis as AAP stung by standards it set.
So, finally the only party to be free from corruption charges, Aam Aadmi Party, is also facing one of its biggest crisis ahead of assembly elections to Delhi, following one of its well-known members, Shazia Ilmi, was accused of infringing the party’s standard on funding transparency by agreeing to accept donations without giving receipts.
A sting operation presented on Thursday by a web portal, showed nine different members of AAP, counting RK Puram candidate Ilmi, party spokesperson Kumar Vishwas and some other candidates softly agreeing to use muscle power to resolve money disputes.
The allegations will definitely harm the party’s credibility and integrity, known the high paradigms it has set for itself. The party faced another setback when its National Council member Surajeet Dasgupta pulled out mentioning absence of inner party democracy.
The sting operation on some of other AAP members such as contenders Bhawna Gaur and Prakash doesn’t show them saying anything outrageous.
But, Ilmi is heard speaking to an undercover reporter and agreeing to accept donation in cash without naming the donor. Her personal assistant is also heard telling modes in which the cash donation can be used without naming donors on the AAP’s official website.
These talks, if true, run different to the assetions of the party that each and every donor of AAP has been given a receipt and named on its official site. These accusations have emerged just a few days after Anna Hazare wrote a letter to Arvind Kejriwal inquiring the source of AAP’s finances. Hazare had intimated that AAP was using money raised during the Jan Lokpal movement for political motive.
The timing and nature of these charges advocate that these are stimulated. It is not astonishing that a party that looks for redefining ethical standards is being jointly under fire by powerful vested interests, counting the big parties, some corrupt segments of the media and corporate.
India is infamous for its corrupt politicians and with the surfacing of this sting, some more are added to the list. Is the word politics that makes people corrupt or are the members of AAP also no different from those who have been looting India since the time the nation gained independence.
