AAP member Nutan Thakur quits over 'party's reaction to sting operation'
New Delhi: Nutan Thakur, a social activist and a member of Aam Aadmi Party, resigned from the party on Sunday expressing her protest over 'party's reaction to the sting operation'. The latest development comes as a blow to the Arvind Kejriwal-led party, which gave clean chit to its leaders earlier on the day saying that the video was fake and doctored.
In the resignation letter Thakur wrote, “I have today (Sunday) resigned from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) after its reaction to the sting operation presented by a media web portal."
"In my resignation sent to Arvind Kejriwal, national convener, AAP, I have said that the party’s reaction to the sting is quite opposed to what it has so far been claiming about itself.”
The letter went onto say, “As per the resignation, the words of the top leaders of this party has proved that all the problems and constraint allegedly related with other political parties hold true in equal measures for AAP.”
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Resignation further said, “it is quite possible that there is manipulation with the sting and it is sponsored by rival forces, but the fact remains that whether it is Shazia Ilmi or Kumar Vishvas or other candidates, they all come in rather compromising positions in the sting video.
"Hence, if a party which is almost a product of the media has to start blaming the media itself and if it starts looking for conspiracy in the sting so as to threaten the web-portal, instead of taking action in its light, times seems to have come for introspection, otherwise very soon many people who saw hopes in AAP will start detaching themselves with this party.”
Thakur said that she was not holding any post in the party and was just a member.
Reacting to this, AAP spokesperson Manish Sisodia said the party was more concerned about those volunteers or members who have been working on the field day and night. "Such people (like Thakur) should leave the party, because they have not actively participated in the party's activities," he said.
Earlier, Aam Aadmi Party charged the website Media Sarkar with committing fraud by 'doctoring' a CD that purportedly showed some of its candidates raising funds through illegal means and said it will file a criminal and civil defamation suit against the portal.
After 'reviewing the content' of the 14-hour-long unedited CD, party leaders said it was 'a fraud and doctoring (of the CD) to malign the party and the candidates at the behest of leaders of BJP and Congress, who feel threatened of losing their ground in the election due to AAP's rising popularity'.
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Giving a clean chit to all its nine candidates in question, AAP leader Yogendra Yadav said the party apologises to them for putting them under suspicion for 72 hours. Yadav, along with other party leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh and senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, said AAP was proud of its candidates, who have come clean in the sting operation by portal Media Sarkar.
"After going through the CD, we can say that all our candidates have come clean, and we are very proud to field such honest candidates," he said.
"We have gone through the entire 14-hour long CD and found many discrepancies with respect to the edited CD released to the media. We have found in the edited CD, conversations of our two candidates, who had flatly refused to help the fake reporter, were removed," Yadav said.
Also, in five interviews, "the important portions of the conversation of our candidates were 'edited and suppressed', and they have doctored the conversation by removing the context in which it was said, he claimed, adding wherever the candidates were shown as saying "yes... yes... ok..."
"it was an attempt to get rid of them and they used that conversation as acceptance of their offer," he added.
Bhushan said the party will not let the matter go and file a criminal defamation and civil defamation case against the web portal.
Referring to the video of its candidate from RK Puram Assembly constituency, Shazia Ilmi, Yadav said, "If you go through the tape she had never said used the word 'lakh' during her conversation on accepting donations, instead she was talking of thousands and for that she was ready to give receipt."
Also, her part of conversation in which she had refused to accept the proposal to stage demonstration on the basis of a lie, has been deleted, he said, adding her attempt to get rid of the reporter by saying yes... yes... has been used as her acceptance.
Similarly, in the case of AAP leader Kumar Vishwas, who had been alleged of accepting money in black, the party said his quote which proves his innocence has been deleted from the CD.
"Vishwas was shown accepting rupees for performing at a function in January, but the portion where he says 'you give me money in cheque or cash, I have to file my income tax returns,' has been removed," Yadav said.
AAP leader Manish Sisodia termed the release of the 'doctored CD' as an attempt to malign the party.
"This clearly indicates that the sting was not done in the national interest but as a well planned conspiracy," he said, adding it also misled the fourth estate.
Raising concerns over release of such malicious CDs during election time, Yadav demanded that Election Commission makes it mandatory for the media to show it the video or audio before releasing them so as to "ensure it doesn't have malicious items, just like the political parties have to show to them the video or audio".
Yadav also said that Vishwas has filed a complaint against Anuranjan Jha, the CEO of Media Sarkar for defaming him. Meanwhile, Jha has also threatened to file a defamation case against AAP.
