[IAC#RG] BJP lies about IAC

Al IACians are warned against some lies the BJP is planting about IAC
and Delhi Dialogue Commission in the media by stories such as
these.from unknown websites in remote places like Chennai.

http://series.fountainink.in/unravelling-the-aap-myth/
http://www.opindia.com/2016/06/aap-leader-aashish-khetan-loses-cool-threatens-journalists-after-expose-of-aaps-corruption/

<excerpt>
Unravelling the AAP myth

BY ARPIT PARASHAR

The Hindi news channel NDTV India on April 18 ran a long programme on
the way two of its journalists had been treated by the Aam Aadmi Party
(AAP) government in Delhi, criticising it for trying to undermine the
freedom of speech of journalists in the capital. One of them, who had
been covering a press conference held by Delhi's minister of transport
Gopal Rai, asked the minister some questions, and when denied the
opportunity to ask more, chose to write against it in a blog post.

Ravish Ranjan Shukla had insisted that the minister answer why despite
the promise of better public transport there was no sign of it during
the hotly-debated odd-even scheme. But Nagendra Sharma, media advisor
to chief minister and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal blocked his queries.
He then wrote in a blog post without naming anyone that media advisors
to the government reacted to the questioning of ministers by "shooting
the messenger" and then "awarding them with dirty labels".

Then Arunoday Prakash, media advisor to deputy CM Manish Sisodia and
Amardeep Tiwari, the government's media advisor, removed two
journalists of the channel including Ravish Ranjan from a WhatsApp
group of the health and the transport department.

The NDTV India anchor discussed the events in detail with the
journalist who had written the blog post but, not surprisingly, no
other news organisation reported it. Ranjan went on to tweet about the
"fascist" nature of the AAP regime which is not used to being
questioned. At least two other journalists, one from ABP News, and
another from the Hindi daily Dainik Jagran, also tweeted about the
incident, and were rewarded with dismissal from the WhatsApp group.

A year ago, when AAP won the Delhi election, and had the halo of
righteousness about it, helped in great measure by Kejriwal's
simplistic, virtuous bombast, the censoring of journalists would have
been big news.

That it wasn't so in this case is the result of a strategy and a cosy
understanding the party and its leaders have with the capital's big
media. AAP made honesty in public life its calling card and showered
contempt on politicians other than its own, but it is now part of the
system it wanted to overthrow. Corruption, an institutional desire to
profit at the cost of the citizen, the entitlement of its workers, and
an intolerance of dissent—AAP has it all. It's become all the things
it scorned on its way to power.

Interviews with a number of party workers, AAP MLAs, officers of the
Delhi government, and men of mystery who "get things done" reveal that
corruption prevails under the Kejriwal government, that the party
benefits and encourages it, and that syndicates of "transfer-posting"
and appointments flourish under the same government that promised to
change the way governance worked in the country.

Multiple attempts to contact AAP spokespersons, Nagendra Sharma, media
advisor to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, and leaders like Ashutosh
and Ashish Khetan failed. They didn't respond to calls on their mobile
phones. An email questionnaire sent to Khetan went unanswered.

Most of the people spoken to opened up on condition of anonymity; some
work for the Delhi government and are rule-bound not to speak, while
those in the party fear for their future in it if names are revealed.
They chose to speak because many joined the AAP for the ideals it
professed, and now feel let down by its practices.

This is in stark contrast to the image of the honest common man that
the party has built for itself, even while giving its MLAs hefty pay
raises and going back on its opposition to the "lal batti" culture,
the VIP culture of entitlement. The Delhi government also had frequent
run-ins with the media in its initial days when it blocked the entry
of journalists into the secretariat last year, leading to a boycott of
its press conferences by the media. But that is also the reason why it
has extended off-the-book benefits to many journalists, with reports
in the Hindi media also suggesting at times that some of the
journalists were on the party payroll. Those who have opposed it,
however, have been on the receiving end with even Kejriwal tweeting at
times on the need for "objective journalism" from them.

This has also helped the party sweep under the rug much of the
criticism against it, apart from using a well-planned strategy to
attack the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra
Modi when any allegation is levelled against it, say party workers and
officer holders. This has helped it consolidate its hold over Delhi's
vast riches that flow in through various avenues, going back on its
promise of a corruption-free government. While corruption cases in
various departments are on the rise, the brief is to keep it away from
the eyes of the common man, in other words, the media.

***

The roots of the Aam Aadmi Party lie in the India Against Corruption
(IAC) movement that sprang into the limelight under social activist
Anna Hazare in 2011. Kejriwal, an officer of the India Revenue
Service, had taken leave from the department in 2000 to start a social
welfare organisation, Parivartan. It worked for the urban poor and for
their rights, did good work and was often consulted as well as written
about by the media. Manish Sisodia, a former journalist, has been his
confidant since the days of Parivartan.

In his book The Crown Prince, The Gladiator and The Hope: Battle for
Change, former journalist and senior AAP leader Ashutosh mentions
Kejriwal's vulnerability to the media and how he grew close to
Kejriwal over time, often advising him on how to handle the media and
their tricky questions. Having come to power with an overwhelming
victory last year, winning 67 of the 70 seats in Delhi, the first task
the government set itself was handling the media.

The Delhi Dialogue Commission, was set up under another former
journalist, Ashish Khetan. Its mandate was to be a bridge between the
common man and government, with Kejriwal as chairperson and Khetan as
vice-chair. Other members include Sisodia, the finance secretary, the
chief secretary, secretary to the CM, a member secretary and two
people nominated by the CM.

Its aim is to find solutions to a range of civic issues, including
women's safety, sanitation, water management, etc. Ideas like the
odd-even scheme for vehicles on road have come out of the commission.

Khetan brought in a deeper understanding of the media, most
importantly its dependence on the revenue generation capacity of a
reporter or a news item created by her. Many senior journalists were
invited to the dialogue commission, which is presently being
remodelled, to understand the demands of the editorial teams at media
houses.

(Disclosure: Khetan was a colleague in Tehelka, and later I worked
for a few months at Gulail, the investigative news portal he started
in 2013)

An editor who works with a Hindi daily, and met Khetan in August last
year, says, "The point made was that the party wanted to work closely
with journalists and create a so-called 'open debate' atmosphere but
the questions being asked were suddenly from the government's side and
not ours. They wanted to know how they could help us, as if we do not
know our job. They wanted to tell us what we need to do rather than
focusing on what they need to do."

The first step was to facilitate news gathering, and departments were
advised to hold frequent press conferences to make sure the media took
the government and the party seriously. The more news you make, the
more favourable the media becomes towards you over time was the logic,
journalists who attended DDC meetings told me.

Apart from providing a steady supply of news, the government decided
to award honorary positions to journalists at educational institutions
over which it has oversight. This was done under deputy chief minister
Sisodia, who also heads the education ministry. The first step was to
dissolve the governing bodies of the 28 colleges funded by the
government affiliated to the Delhi University. It went through with
the plan despite opposition from the university and hundreds of
non-permanent teachers.

Since 1993, all governments, Congress or BJP, as well as the Delhi
University have nominated senior journalists to the governing bodies
of these colleges, which are reconstituted every two years. Five
members each are nominated by the Delhi University and Delhi
government to these posts. AAP nominated 25 journalists and some
former journalists listed as "Educationists" to these bodies, making
for more than 20 per cent of all nominations. Most are working
journalists, many of whom report and write about AAP. At least four
senior journalists in the Bennett Coleman group (which publishes The
Times of India, The Economic Times and Navbharat Times) had accepted
the appointment but had to resign as such office goes against group
policy.

A senior official of the department of higher education, speaking on
condition of anonymity, says, "All were informed beforehand and duly
consulted before their names were put on the list. They could have
refused if they wished. Some journalists did refuse and they were not
nominated."

A journalist from a Hindi news channel who is on the governing body of
one the colleges, says, "Obviously when I help the organisation get
both news and ads they would not care about anything else. And this is
not even a paid post."

Harjeet Singh, a party worker who played a big role in rallying the
trader community towards AAP before the elections, is a businessman
who doesn't have a background in the education industry. However, he
is listed as a social worker along with many other workers of the
party, while some others are listed simply as "Professional".

Kapil Bhardwaj, a senior party worker in charge of preparations for
the Punjab assembly elections next year with another party worker
Sanjay Singh, has also been listed as "Professional (MBA)". Many other
workers who are not even from Delhi, have been nominated, some listed
just as "Researcher". Bhardwaj could not be contacted despite multiple
attempts. One of his two mobile phone numbers was switched off and
didn't take any calls on the other one.

The posts are honorary in nature, members don't get salaries. But they
play a pivotal role in the hiring of ad hoc faculty, librarians, and
Class III and IV posts. These appointments are also the ones for which
huge bribes are paid since they are mostly secure government jobs and
the decision of the governing body is binding. The non-permanent
teachers, on the other hand, have been alleging favouritism in
appointment of candidates since last year.

A senior member of Delhi University's executive council, who does not
want to be named, said, "More than 2000 non-permanent teachers were to
be regularised last year when the AAP government announced that new
governing bodies were to be made. Almost half are not even in the fray
anymore because their contracts were not renewed even though many of
them had been working for 3-4 years and deserved to be inducted
permanently. Instead new teachers were hired."

There are more than 5,000 non-permanent teachers working in Delhi
University's various colleges, including the ones under the Delhi
government, and their contracts have to be renewed every four months.
Interviews for these appointments are conducted every four months,
leaving the door open for money to change hands since competition
becomes stiffer by the year as candidates proliferate.

"This has become a routine now and everyone knows that if you can pay
some money you could be hired for 3-4 terms in which time you try for
a better job elsewhere or hope that you will be regularised and not be
working on ad hoc basis anymore. This happens under every government,"
says a teacher who is also a member of AAP, when asked how he has kept
his job safe since last year and whether this system of corruption was
not against the party's declared ethics.

More importantly, teachers say that when governing bodies comprise
members whose selection depends on whether AAP wants them there or
not, merit as a criterion falls by the wayside. Anil Solanki, who
teaches Hindi at one of the colleges, says, "When the body that holds
the interviews is itself intellectually defunct one can imagine how
appointments are made. You need a recommendation or to have deposited
some chanda (donation) to the party (AAP)."

***

Managing negative news has been a major thrust area of the AAP. It
deploys an army of cyber warriors to scrub the internet of any dirt
that sticks to the party; negative news is drowned out by positive
news.

The main job of the team is search engine optimisation (SEO), which
also involves in many cases paying huge amounts of money to companies
that handle their "image" on search engines like Google, according to
party workers and at least one digital media agency working for it.
The aim is to make sure that the readers' hits on negative news
articles are fewer, and that such news is not on the top list of items
on Google and platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Akshat Saini, senior executive at a firm on the list of AAP's digital
marketing consultants, says, "All you have to do is to make sure hits
on pages that you want on top of the list are much higher so that the
Google algorithm automatically pushes it up the ranks. This is done in
many ways, easiest of them being that you viral the links of your
websites or the ones you wish to push up the ranks so much that
algorithmically they automatically are more relevant for Google or
other media platforms."

Saini says his company has been paid crores by AAP (he refused to
quote a figure) and that it is a common practice among political
parties now. "Every party wants positive news about itself rather than
negative news. They hire full-fledged teams just like AAP has, with
qualified engineers and experts." In the case of AAP its volunteer
base is the backbone of this team. They either work of their own
accord or with a team of at least 10 people out of the office of the
Delhi Dialogue Commission under Khetan.

In many cases, however, AAP also acts according to the mood of the
audiences on the web and manufactures or makes news that it then
pushes against negative publicity.

An example of this was during the allegations against transport
minister Gopal Rai. The department was caught renewing licences of
autorickshaws for people it favoured .While there were close to 17,000
vehicles on the road only 10,000 were to be allowed back as per the
government's decision. The department had been provided with a list of
dealers to be favoured. But the scam was exposed and there were
large-scale protests on the city's roads.

In order to control the surge in negative publicity, Rai immediately
suspended three officials based on recommendations from party workers.
A senior official of the department says, "They were actually against
the directions and had decided to work in a fair manner. They just
became scapegoats in a political battle."

After the news of the suspension was made public, the party's cyber
unit made sure that news of the suspension of officials, something
that bolsters their anti-corruption image, found more traction. Within
hours news about the suspensions was on top of the Google news. Even
now, if one tries to read about the scam she will have to scroll to
fifth or sixth search-result page for it.

"For example, you still get news of the BJP protests against the AAP
in the corruption cases or demanding resignation of ministers among
the top ranked links since they too have firms that handle their
digital marketing, just like AAP does. But a workers' protest or
autorickshaw unions' protest in the news reports will not find place
in the higher ranks. That is how they influence the news that majority
of online readers get," Saini says.

A similar strategy has been used by the party when its leaders have
been attacked by the Congress or the BJP. After the sting that showed
the principal secretary to Kejriwal demanding a bribe on camera the
BJP attacked the party and Kejriwal. AAP instructed its party workers
to rake up "five issues for every one against" them. As part of this
strategy, Kejriwal and other party leaders attack Prime Minister
Narendra Modi and raise issues from other parts of the country with
which BJP is grappling every time they feel they are copping negative
publicity.

An AAP leader who unsuccessfully fought against one of BJP's young
leaders in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, says, "We have countered BJP's
internet strategy. While their followers and members attack negative
publicity by swarming cyberspace with counter comments and trolls, we
simply give the reader more negative news to read than the one against
us. As for paying for removing or promoting content online, every
party has learnt to do it now. It is no more a taboo practice."

***

This cushioning from negative news and its ability to fight off
corruption charges has emboldened AAP.

A survey by Swaraj Abhiyan, formed by Yogendra Yadav and Prashant
Bhushan, former AAP founding members, in February this year saw almost
80 per cent of respondents saying corruption had not gone down under
the AAP government. Bhushan and Yadav were expelled for anti-party
activities and statements last year after AAP came to power. They
claim they were targeted because they openly spoke against corruption
in the party as well as its failure to curb it on the ground, the
plank on which it won the election.

In one instance, Rs 2 crore was deposited into AAP's account through
four different companies which paid Rs 50 lakh each. The disclosure of
these transfers was made by a breakaway faction of the party, AAP
Volunteer Action Manch in February last year. The four companies,
whose addresses were later found to be fake, existed only on paper and
had not made any profit in the recent past as per the details of their
accounts, the rebels claimed.

AAP denied the charges since the payments had been made via cheque and
challenged finance minister Arun Jaitley to launch a probe. The name
of a well-known alleged hawala agent, Hem Prakash Sharma, emerged in
the case. Sharma is reportedly on the board of directors of at least
20 companies most of which have turned out to be fake, used allegedly
as fronts by other companies. The case is with the Income Tax
department and not much action has been taken in the matter.

A senior income tax department official, part of the team
investigating the case, said: "My understanding is that the possible
perpetrator here, the one who used the front companies to donate money
(to AAP) also happens to be a donor for the BJP and that is the reason
we have been asked not to go ahead with further investigations."

The official refused to be named because he is not authorised to speak
to the media, and the case has political ramifications.

Another instance is the case of Rosmerta Technologies Limited, the
company which supplies High Security Registration Plates (HSRP) for
vehicles in Delhi. The company, based in Gurgaon, manufactures and
supplies credit cards for many banks, driving licences for many
states, property registration cards apart from supplying HSRPs to
states like Delhi and Maharashtra.

While other states have taken steps against the company, in Delhi it
has been given a free hand. The government awarded the contract for
HSRPs to Rosmerta HSRP Ventures Private Limited, which was a special
purpose vehicle (SPV) of the parent company Rosmerta Technologies
Limited and Utsav Safety Systems Private Limited, which was also the
Type Approval Certificate (TAC) holder and so the parent company in
the SPV. While the latter was the technical partner in the SPV, the
former was only a financial partner.

Soon after the contract had been awarded the government, then under
the Congress, started receiving complaints that the number plates
being provided were either faulty or fake. In many cases the plates
were found too fragile and not up to standard. To look into the
matter, the Congress government set up a three-member committee which
submitted its report in 2014. It said Rosmerta Technologies Limited
had set up various fake offices in the capital from where it was
selling substandard plates to consumers at exorbitant prices compared
to those set by the government.

Its partner Utsav Safety Systems Private Limited (USSPL) filed
complaints against it for providing substandard HSRPs through the SPV.
The committee found that while technical approval had been given to
the factory owned by USSPL in Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh which
manufactured the HSRPs, the plates were not being supplied from the
same place. To cater to the growing demand, Rosmerta started supplying
plates from its plant in Assam which did not initially have permission
from the government. The committee found the HSRPs substandard and
being from an uncertified source posed a security risk since fake
plates could easily be bought in the city. Transport department had
issued notices to the company after the committee's report came out
but it failed to act on it.

While the then government had ordered that the contract of the company
be cancelled, the AAP government after coming to power in January 2015
constituted a new committee to look into the matter. By then even the
Supreme Court had pointed out in its judgment on a contempt petition
that the company was supplying plates from the uncertified plant
despite its directions.

Moreover, the plates being sold at exorbitant prices were causing the
exchequer and the public huge losses. For example, the committee found
in its report that instead of the stipulated one-month period after
which the plates were to be issued, it was offering them in a matter
of hours. As per government stipulations the plate for a two-wheeler
costs Rs 69 whereas they were being sold for close to Rs 500 in the
open market. Similarly, private and commercial four-wheel plates cost
Rs 1200 and Rs 1500 in the open market whereas the government rates
are Rs 214 and Rs 220 respectively. Considering that a minimum of
5,000 private four-wheeler vehicles are sold in Delhi every day, the
company was making a profit of close to Rs 50 lakh per day. This
margin is much higher for commercial vehicles.

The committee set up by AAP also recommended that the contract with
the company be cancelled. A few months before this the Madhya Pradesh
government had cancelled the contract of its supplier for similar
reasons, while Sikkim rejected the Rosmerta bid a few months later on
the recommendations of the Delhi committee.

The company, however, approached the AAP government and got a
favourable response immediately. The transport department accepted
Rosmerta's demand for arbitration and appointed Justice (retired) A
Alam as arbitrator.

Senior officials in the transport department claim the "deal" was in
return for handsome donations. "Some officials opposed the move and
insisted that the contract be terminated but they were told the
government was mulling suspending a whole set of them for corruption
earlier but had chosen not to. They were asked to their faces whether
they would prefer to leave things as they were or face suspension and
action," an official in the department says.

This attitude stems from Kejriwal's own understanding of the system
as an insider. On April 20 addressing civil servants in Delhi he
warned them against "netagiri" and said they should support the
government, which officials say was another indirect threat.

AAP workers, however, have been enriched by the company on a regular
basis through its several HSRP centres across the capital. An AAP MLA
who raised his voice against Rosmerta on some platforms within the
party, says he was approached by people from the company offering
money for public works in his area. The company representatives, the
MLA said, told him Rosemerta was quietly supporting AAP and its honest
workers and leaders through such donations. "The money is already
being paid to higher-ups through the workers on the ground, who report
only to them and keep floating across constituencies handling their
money as per instructions. Anyone seen going out of line is approached
and things are quietly kept running the way they want. That is the
reason DDC now stands for Delhi Dalaal Commission."

***

The other important source of off-the-books cash has been the
"transfer-posting" industry. Officials are either transferred to a
particular post because of their ability to generate cash through
various means, or because the officer coughs up enough money for party
funds for a transfer to a particular department or for a promotion.

All this money is paid in cash or to a trusted "agent" of the party.
Raju (name changed) is a property dealer in Badarpur close to one such
agent-cum-worker of AAP and so makes quick money by getting people the
posts they desire. The system works in a phased manner. Once an
officer approaches him, his query is discussed with the boss, a party
worker who is almost a floating presence in the party circles. "Voh
aise log hain ki kahin bhi takra jaenge aapko. Kabhi aapki gali mein
hi ghoomte mil jaenge aur kabhi maheeno tak dikhai nahi denge (You
could run into these people anywhere. Sometimes you could meet them in
your own street whereas sometimes they would not even be in Delhi for
months)." There are dedicated groups of such men who deal with the
money.

Once the query is recorded as legitimate, the officer is asked an
approximate amount he can pay in cash and kind. In rare cases,
officers want a transfer for personal reasons and are either directly
referred through a call of approval to the official authority to send
the papers further or given considerable concessions depending on the
reasons for demanding a transfer.

"If we get too lenient everybody will come up with some excuse. I
discourage such people from approaching me in the first place." Raju
asks them to directly approach their senior officers.

A mid-level officer in one of the many departments of the Delhi
government recently approached Raju through a friend in his office who
earlier used Raju's services.

"He (the friend) says he paid close to Rs 20 lakh to get a promotion
towards the end of last year," the officer says. But he has a
different request—he needs a transfer to a different district within
Delhi since his current superior has taken a dislike to him because of
his no-nonsense approach to work. "He interferes quite often and
dictates terms. I will not be able to rise through my work as long as
he is there since he expects us all to make money for him," the
officer told Fountain Ink. The officer was ready to pay up to Rs 15
lakh but Raju has made him wait for almost three months now. "There
cannot be too frequent transfers. The timing has to be right.
Sometimes it is good to show it as a punishment transfer even when it
is not," Raju says.

On the day Raju is to meet the officer he calls him to the Badarpur
metro station where two of Raju's men stand guard at a distance,
keeping an eye on possible busts. "Kejriwal ji ne chilla chilla ke
recording sikha di hai poori dilli ko (Kejriwal has taught whole of
Delhi to record videos)," he says referring to calls by the CM to
record bribes being paid to agents or government officials to expose
them.

Normally dressed in a white kurta-pyjama, Raju sticks to blue jeans
and shirt to not stand out in the crowd this time. The officer reaches
the station and gives him a call. During the meeting, Raju tells him
that he will have to pay Rs 12 lakh for the transfer to be done within
three months. The officer agrees, but asks for an assurance that
orders will come within three months. Raju says: "BJP ya Congress ki
sarkaar nahi hai ki paisa leke guarantee se kaam kar de. Bol diya ho
jaega toh ab bas umeed rakhiye. Koshish yahi rahegi nirash na hi ho
aap (It is not the Congress or the BJP government where you would be
assured that your work will be done once you pay up. Keep the hopes
up. I'll try my best not to disappoint)."

The officer insists that the amount is big and that he has never paid
such a huge sum as a bribe ever. "I am an honest guy who makes money
just because everyone else does, too. I just get my share. You would
have done enough research yourself to know this about me I suppose,"
he tells Raju.

"No government has won with such a margin in Delhi either. There is no
opposition at all. This is how this government is going to work. I
myself don't know if my share from this will reach me, how do I assure
you saab?" Raju says.

On the day the money is to be delivered, Raju again calls the officer
to the metro station, but this time it is his aide Ashok (name
changed) who makes first contact. Ashok takes the officer to a small
restaurant—the owner is a friend of his—on the Badarpur-Mehrauli road,
and checks the bag in which the amount is kept—24 bundles of Rs 50,000
each, with each bundle consisting of 100 notes of Rs 500 denomination.
Every bundle, Singh had been told, was to have a different sequence of
numbers. Ashok checks and is satisfied.

Sitting in his car, parked across the road from where the restaurant
is, Raju says, "Voh log toh har gaddi khol ke alag alag set se note
milate hain (The ones who collect the money mix notes from all bundles
from different sets randomly)." This is to make sure the money leaves
no trail. Fresh bundles are prepared after such random mixing and they
are all then sent to the so-called company owners who do the work of
depositing this money. But this money is not necessarily going into an
account; it might be carried to the ground-level party workers as per
instructions from above.

When Raju gets the money, he makes sure he delivers it to his "agent"
at the earliest. "People tend to get too conscious and nervous when
they have finally paid the money. Ekdum se unki imandaari bhi jag
jaati hai kabhi kabhi (The honest person in them too can wake up at
times). So it is good to get rid of this quickly."

He makes the cash delivery at the Statesman building in Connaught
Place, the centre of Lutyens' Delhi, right across the road from the
busy Barakhamba Road metro station. The money is packed like a parcel
and the spot is chosen randomly, though he says the present one is
much preferred since it is right in the centre of the city where
nobody would think of black deals being made. His "agent" disappears
into a green DTC bus immediately after collecting the package. Raju
and his agent do not switch on their phones for 24 hours after that to
avoid being detected or tracked.

***

Since last year, almost all the cash collected by the AAP has been
making its way to the cadres rather than the accounts of the party.
Funds raised through donations online are accounted for. The reason
for amassing cash is to shore up the war chest for the Punjab assembly
polls due next year. According to party members Punjab will be the
second state with an AAP government.

It was the only state where the party registered substantial voter
enthusiasm and victories in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. All four of
its MPs are from the state. Two have since been suspended from the
party for "anti-party" activities. In Delhi, too, to keep a check on
the activities of MLAs the party considers too outspoken the cadres
keep an eye. Anyone seen as speaking against Kejriwal or the party is
quickly put on the watch list.

An AAP MLA who claims to be on the list says, "It is almost like a
parallel setup being run by the party cadre in my own constituency.
Such is the insecurity of the man (Kejriwal) that he cannot even
tolerate a voice questioning him or his close aides in the party. I
have spoken out quite often in meetings about some of the party's
policies and so have been targeted. People in my own constituency are
confused about my role."

The MLA refused to be named because he has been trying to get into the
good books of Kejriwal. As he sees it, this is the only way to a
future in AAP.

In October last year the party directed its MLAs in Delhi to
contribute Rs 1 lakh each per month to fund its Punjab campaign. The
news soon came out in the media and there were questions over how the
MLAs would arrange the money through donations every month. The party
declared then that the plan had been shelved. Barely six months later,
however, it has quietly passed on instructions to MLAs to deposit Rs
1.5 lakh every month towards the Punjab elections, according to
several party workers and MLAs interviewed for this story.

An MLA opposed to the move says, "Even if I want to remain honest I
have no option but to get into the muck and arrange this money somehow
every month. How many Punjabi-speaking people or businessmen can one
find in the constituency on a monthly basis to keep on donating
money?"

(Arpit Parashar is a freelance journalist based in Delhi.)

(Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

(From the May 2016 issue of Fountain Ink)