Arvind Kejriwal should totally consider writing a book called “How not to shortlist candidates for a political party?” One of his MLAs allegedly desecrated the Holy Quran, another bashed a bureaucrat and fled, third one bashed his wife, fourth MLA was suspended because he produced a fake degree, fifth AAP MLA allegedly instructed a young man to threaten a lady with rape and murder for ‘politicising” the issue of power cuts in the capital. 21 AAP MLAs are currently under ECs scanner for holding offices of profit. And now we have Sandeep Kumar, AAP MLA from Sultanpur Mazra who also happens to be Delhi’s Minister for Women and Child development, Social Welfare. According to this NDTV report, A CD submitted to Mr Kejriwal supposedly showed the minister in a compromising position with two women. It also had some objectionable photographs.
Arvind Kejriwal sacked AAP MLA Sandeep Kumar, and removed him from cabinet with immediate effect. Here’s what Arvind Kejriwal tweeted:
Recd "objectionable" CD of minister Sandeep Kr. AAP stands for propriety in public life. That can't be compromised(1/2)
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) August 31, 2016
Removing him from Cabinet wid immediate effect(2/2)
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) August 31, 2016
Alright, Sandeep Kumar was a bad guy in a good party, Arvind Kejriwal committed to the cause of bringing purity in Politics, sacked him. We can deride him for his selection, but he did the right thing after all. Shouldn’t all parties take a cue from this episode and make way for clean politics by suspending the evildoers. Certainly. But there’s more to this episode than what meets the eyes.
Manak Gupta (Anchor / TV Journalist with News 24 channel (Ex Zee News, Aaj Tak, BBC) presents a different version of the story. Arvind Kejriwal did sack Sandeep Kumar, or rather Arvind Kejriwal was forced to sack him.
Look at this tweet:
Video in "objectionable CD" was shot 2 months ago. Given to LG yesterday. Given to Kejriwal 15 days ago, says whistle-blower.
— Manak Gupta (@manakgupta) August 31, 2016
As per Manak, the whistleblower had given the objectionable video to Kejriwal 15 days back. The video itself was shot 2 months ago. The real twist in the tale is the fact that he had given the video to LG Najeeb Jung yesterday. Kejriwal who doesn’t take a minute to come up with a movie review, was sitting on this for 15 days. But since the video was passed to the LG, Kejriwal had to act. He knew that the game was lost, so with this move he is trying to mint as much respect (and sympathy) as possible.
Will be interesting to know what LG Najib Jung has to say about the Sandeep Kumar? And how Kejriwal connects this episode with Modi?