Soft PR, ‘samosa’ slam: How Arvind Kejriwal’s ‘soldier’ defended Raghav Chadha’s ‘demotion’ in Rajya Sabha
New Delhi: The party’s internal rifts came into public view on Friday after MP Raghav Chadha reacted to his ouster as the party’s deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, drawing a sharp retort from senior colleagues.Leaders such as Delhi AAP president Saurabh Bharadwaj and IT cell chief Anurag Dhanda, who call themselves ‘Arvind Kejriwal ke sipaahi’, defended the leadership’s decision and defended Chadha’s “demotion” in the Upper House.Also Read – AAP opens rift: Raghav Chadha attacks leadership; party hits backIn a sharp attack, Bharadwaj accused Chadha of indulging in “soft PR” instead of taking on the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Slamming a parliamentary intervention in Chadha, he said: “A small party has a very limited time there and it is more important to raise the real issues of the country than to talk about samosas.”He added, “Whenever something goes wrong and the opposition withdraws, you don’t go on strike. In the last few years, I have not seen you raising any issue in Parliament, questioning the Prime Minister or the BJP government. How can the politics of fear work like this?”Questioning Chadha’s role as a member of the Punjab Lok Sabha, Bharadwaj said, “You were elected from Punjab and you are not even willing to raise the issues of Punjab. Recently in Gujarat, around 160 party members were registered in false cases and many were arrested, but you remained silent on this too.”He escalated his criticism, citing past incidents involving the party leadership. “When many of our leaders were jailed and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Ji was arrested on false cases, you were not even in the country at that time, you went somewhere and stayed away.”The party’s IT cell chief Anurag Dhanda also launched a sharp attack, accusing Raghav Chadha of failing to perform his duties in the interest of the party. On the nature of the issue raised by Chadha in Parliament, he said, “In Parliament, political parties have only a little time to speak so that we can either try to save the country or bargain to make samosas cheaper in airport canteens.”Danda escalated his criticism by questioning Chadha’s politics and resolve. “If someone is afraid of Modi, will they fight for the country?” he said, claiming Chadha avoided taking strong stands on key national issues. He cited several examples to back up his charges, including alleged silence on the arrest of party workers in Gujarat, inaction on voting rights issues in West Bengal and refusal to support a motion against the Chief Election Commissioner.“
