Journalist-turned-politician and Aam Aadmi Party leader Ashutosh, is again in the news for all the wrong reasons. Rohini court has ordered an FIR against controversial AAP leader, Ashutosh. He made vulgar and controversial comments against Mahatma Gandhi and the Former Prime Ministers Atal Vihari Bajpayee and Jawaharlal Nehru in his blog. He defended his shameful comments in the name of Freedom of Speech in his tweet. Ashutosh tweeted, “I respect court, will reply in court. But those who had gone to court after almost 2 years want to gag me/snatch my fundamental RT to freedom of expression. I am an ardent follower of Gandhiji, can’t imagine insulting him.”
There is a court order to file FIR ag me. I respect court, will reply in court. But Those who had gone to court after almost 2 years want to gag me/snatch my fundamental RT to freedom of expression. I am an ardent follower of Gandhiji, can’t imagine insulting him.
— ashutosh (@ashutosh83B) May 8, 2018
While directing the Delhi Police to file an FIR against AAP leader Ashutosh, the court observed,“Easy for an attention seeker to stand and point finger towards Mahatma; difficult even for a patriotic preacher to rise and achieve greatness like Mahatma.” A Delhi resident had filed a criminal complaint against Ashutosh under sections 292 and 293 of the IPC. Another complaint by Subodh Jain at Jyoti Nagar Police station, Delhi, demanded the police to send Ashutosh for mental-check up.
In 2016, Ashutosh had defended an expelled AAP minister Sandeep Kumar who was caught receiving sexual favours in exchange for ration cards, using analogy of Mahatma Gandhi and the other aforementioned leaders. In his blog, he wrote, “Indian history is full of examples of our leaders and heroes who had lived with their desires beyond social boundaries. Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru’s reported affairs with many female colleagues were juicy gossip but it didn’t spoil his political career. His relationship with Edwina Mountbatten is widely discussed. The entire world knew about it. Their affections continued till Pt. Nehru’s last breath. Was it a sin? History is also witness to the fact that top leaders of the Congress in 1910s were worried about Gandhiji’s relationship with Sarla Chaudhary, who was distantly related to Rabindra Nath Tagore. Gandhi Ji had confessed that Sarla was his spiritual wife. Kasturba Gandhi was very disturbed. C Rajagopalchari and other senior leaders of the party had to intervene. They persuaded, pressured, cajoled Gandhi-ji to leave Sarla. Gandhiji in his later days slept naked with his two nieces to experiment with celibacy. Pandit Nehru had told him not to do so as the country would rise against him but Gandhi-ji did not budge.
Socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia used to say that every relationship between a man and a woman is right if it is not defined by coercion and manipulation. He had a lifelong partner and lived with her without marriage. His colleague George Fernandes was married to Laila Kabir, but this was never a problem for his friendship with Jaya Jaitley. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was not married in true RSS tradition but he said in parliament that he is a bachelor not celibate. He openly lived with his college friend and society did not object even once (sic).” – replicated word-by-word from Ashtosh’s blog.
He further said, “Maybe these leaders were fortunate as they didn’t live in the TV era; they were not caught on camera; no sting operation was done.”
This shows the intellectual level of AAP spokesperson Ashutosh who was not only shameless enough to defend the act, but defended it by comparing Sandeep Kumar to some of India’s most respected leaders. Irrespective of what these leaders might have done in their time, nobody can be accused of sexual impropriety compared to AAP leader Sandeep Kumar. Now, the court has directed that an FIR be filed against him. However, it remains to be seen whether Ashutosh will emerge any wiser from this fiasco. If the past conduct of his party is any indication, this seems unlikely.