AAP and its learned party president never seizes to surprise with the tenacity of blunders that they keep committing one after the other. Not so long ago, AAP was looking like a decent and commendable competitor in upcoming Punjab elections. But then as some say, blunder, thy name is AAP.
Since its inception in November 2012, AAP has managed to do more self-goals then number of parliament secretaries Delhi government appointed for all its ministers. What makes this comparison interesting is the fact that nods for the both came directly from the helm.
In June 2016, AAP MLA Naresh Yadav was grilled by Police after he was accused of being involved in burning of Quran in Muslim dominated area of Malerkotla town of Punjab. The state police team as of now is in the national capital to arrest Mr. Yadav for the same.
However being not the one to be left behind Mr. Arvind Kejriwal decided to lead by example and landed in state capital to lend his support to series of AAP gaffes. In a much publicized function, AAP president released party’s ‘Youth Manifesto’ for the upcoming election which actually had party’s symbol broom and the image of Golden temple side by side on its cover.
It doesn’t require the IQ of an Einstein to understand how very demeaning and disrespectful the representation was to the whole community of Sikh’s in Punjab and elsewhere. This political gaffe of epic proportion reversed back all mileage that Arvind Kejriwal wanted to gain by releasing it at the holy city of religious symbolism.
If this wasn’t enough the over enthusiastic party leaders including but not limited to Mr. Ashish Khetan, compared their election manifesto with much revered Holy Book of Sikh community Shri Guru Granth Sahib Ji.
It is extremely surprising to know that senior leaders of a party who wishes to contest and win a Sikh dominant state isn’t even aware of the most basic facts about the community. It is a well-known fact that the sacred book is considered as the living embodiment of the Guru’s by the Sikh.
There are very strict protocols followed to ensure sanctity of the Holy Granth at every place of its presence.
Comparing such a sacred scripture with something as political as the party’s manifesto would certainly require a very high degree of ignorance. No doubt few leaders of AAP had that talent.
These facts surely point towards one major point- Punjab campaign of AAP is completely run by the outsiders who haven’t even bothered to do a basic study of culture, ethos and sensitivity of the state’s population.
Ill crafted strategies of AAP have majorly backfired and instead of giving it the intended edge amongst voters, has only embroiled the party in legal and political mess.
One of the major causes behind these errors could be the fact that AAP has got no credible representative of Sikh community in their election unit. The brightest and most prominent face that they have got till yet is of none other than comedian-turned-politician Bhagwant Mann.
However he made his strong presence felt in the AAP’s Olympic of gaffes.
The man who has previously been under scrutiny for his ill-timed drinking habits now managed to grab headlines once more due to an act of complete stupidity which actually put the security of Parliament at risk.Out of the blue, few days back Mr. Bhagwant Mann a sitting MP decided to give his facebook followers the live video tour of highly sensitive parliament premises.
The virtual tour involved process of crossing the barricades, going through security gates and culminated at one of the offices inside Parliament building. Soon after another former AAP member and MP from Punjab informed media about how he couldn’t bear stinking smell of alcohol coming from Bhagwant Mann in parliament. He even requested the speaker of the house to change his seat for the same reason.
After going through all these incidents of the recent past it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that AAP is living to its name of being the party with a difference. Though I am not sure they meant it this way.
Not many people know that, Arvind Kejriwal was actually born on Janmashtami, so would it be safe to assume that they would be equating him with some Krishna Avtaar during next year’s UP election? Well going by the precedents all we can say is, Who Knows?
http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/sacrilege-ap-mla-held-by-punjb-cops/270922.html
