'It's a Stalinist purge, dissenters are being targeted': Prashant Bhushan - The Indian Express

Prashant Bhushan had raised questions on the party’s functioning and was voted out of the Political Affairs Committee.

Prashant Bhushan was one of the four leaders who were voted out of the AAP’s National Executive at a the party’s National Council meeting on Saturday. Bhushan, who had raised questions on the party’s functioning and was voted out of the Political Affairs Committee as well, has alleged that hooliganism and goondagardi was rampant in the Council.

Personally, how much has this controversy hurt you?

It has hurt me personally. But it is not so much a question of personal hurt. It is the fact that people whom I worked closely with and who I had supported have descended to such levels of resorting to blatant lies, resorting to fabrications, of resorting to all kinds of unethical and illegal means and now resorting to hooliganism and goondaism. That is what is most hurting. That even the minimum modicum of decency… For example, I didn’t actually see this because I was looking in front. I was sitting towards the front and I was looking at the front. But when this ruckus started towards the end of Arvind’s speech, his MLAs rushed to say: “gaddaron ko phek do, phek do”. They rushed towards my father because his speech was partly aimed at him. My father says he felt the same thing… it was like the one time he was attacked by dacoits and didn’t know if he would come out alive or not. So, what kind of MLAs, what kind of people have we bred? What kind of culture have we bred? And all this was on the instructions, planning and the full encouragement of Arvind. He himself instigated those people, he was there when this was happening. That is why I say that it has become like a Stalinist purge. The manner in which this purge is happening within the party, the manner in which they removed Anand Kumar, Ajit Jha, Yogendra Yadav and me and now the Lokpal himself. And now all these MLA’s that dissented are being targeted. Its like a Stalinist purge.

One of the things that they have questioned is that while the party never had the policy of one man, one post, it does have the policy debarring more than one person of a family holding a post. They say that your sister and father both held posts. How do you answer that?

It was that two members of a family can’t hold two executive posts. My father was not holding any executive posts, my sister was also not holding any executive posts. She was originally organisation development adviser which was not an executive post. She was thereafter AAP global team coordinator which was also not an executive post. She was not in any decision making capacity in the party, to make an executive decision. But it is really remarkable that the persons that are continued…

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