Last Updated: March 04, 2023, 08:30 AM IST
Senior party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh says AAP’s support base will only grow. (Twitter)
The arrest of top AAP leaders is to trap them in false and fabricated cases. Both our ministers Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain, who have been arrested, were doing very good work in education and health sectors, Sanjay Singh tells News18
With two of its top leaders, including former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, being arrested at a time when many states are set to go to polls while preparations are on for the 2024 Lok Sabha battle, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which had announced expansion of its footprint across the nation, starting with poll-bound states, is in a tight spot.
Senior party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh tells News18 how the arrests will “not impact” their expansion plans, vision for LS polls next year and that Sisodia may be in for the long haul.
Edited excerpts:
With two of your top leaders being arrested, it’s a big blow to your governance in Delhi as well as the larger plans for political expansion in states and the upcoming general elections. Do you think it will dent the party’s prospects in these crucial election years?
It will not impact our plans in any way. The whole act of arresting top AAP leaders by the Centre is to trap them in false and fabricated cases. Both our ministers Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain, who have been arrested, were doing very good work in education and health sectors. And this is the reason they have been put behind bars. I will only say that the more BJP-led Centre moves ahead with its oppressive acts of harassing AAP leaders, our support base will increase. The more they torture us, the more popularity we will gain across the nation.
Sisodia has not just been booked in the excise policy case, but even in the feedback unit snooping case. Do you think he, like Jain, is in for the long haul?
They can book him in a thousand more cases. Central investigative agencies such as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) have been given such powers that they can even put a person in jail for a year without proving any charges or having any strong evidence against them. You can see this in the case of Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, or former Maharashtra Home minister Anil Deshmukh’s case. Another stark example of misuse of agencies is the case involving journalist Siddique Kappan, who was falsely booked under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). This is when there are charges of a huge financial fraud against businessman Gautam Adani, who is a close aide of the BJP. But the Centre has not sent any agency to investigate those charges.
After the party’s success in Punjab and good show in Gujarat, the AAP leadership had pitched party chief and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal as the PM face for the 2024 general elections against PM Narendra Modi. Does the party still stand by it?
It will be too early to talk about this at the moment. The party will take a decision on how to go ahead with the preparation for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, how many seats we will contest from and in which states. However, it is a fact that any party goes to polls with a vision and we are in the process of working it out. We need to know what we can do for people in the area where we contest from. At present, our priority is to work on solutions that can be provided on issues relating to people’s lives such as health, education, water and power, wherever we go with our campaign.
With serious corruption charges against AAP leaders, that too for a party that came to power on an anti-corruption plank on the one hand, and the unrest in Punjab with the rise of Khalistani movement, which the BJP has been calling “misgovernance”, the very DNA of the party has been questioned. What do you have to say about it?
As I have already said the charges of corruption are all false and fabricated and even the people know that. Secondly, on the rise of Amritpal (Indian Khalistani separatist activist) in Punjab, the state government will act as per the law. The land of Punjab is such where hatred cannot be cultivated. Our government is committed to humanity and brotherhood. And when talking of governance, our government in Punjab has given employment to thousands of people, has opened moholla clinics, is providing 300 units of power free to each household every month, has improved law and order and will continue to work for people’s welfare. Under the BJP rule, which is running this false agenda, at least 56,000 schools were shut down in various states, including Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Madhya Pradesh (MP), among others.
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