The decision was taken at AAP convenor and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence during a meeting of the party leaders.
A day after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) removed its senior leaders Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav from the party's national executive, its internal Lokpal Admiral L Ramdas (retired) too was shown the door. Also, Prashant Bhushan was axed from another party panel – the disciplinary committee on Sunday.
The decision was taken at AAP convenor and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence during a meeting of the party leaders.
Ramdas has been replaced by a three-member internal Lokpal panel comprising N Dilip Kumar, former IPS officer known for his anti-corruption credentials, Rakesh Sinha, former DIG CISF and a high court lawyer, and Dr SP Verma, an educationist.
Reacting to the development, Ramdas, in a statement issued to media said that it was with great surprise and sadness that he heard from a reporter that the AAP no longer required his services.
"I am disappointed that the leadership of the party did not accord me the courtesy of informing me first before making this decision public. I still await their phone-call," he said, adding that he was "more sad than surprised" over the party's decision. "It was with a sense of excitement and hope that I became part of this movement to bring a new kind of politics to India. I believed in the ideals of transparency, accountability and fairness that was encapsulated in the institution of the Lokpal."
The national executive of AAP also reconstituted its national disciplinary committee by replacing Bhushan with Ashish Khetan, considered close to Kejriwal. The other members of the committee include Dinesh Vaghela, a social activist, who will head the panel and senior leader Pankaj Gupta.
Bhushan too reacted sharply and told reporters that "this is a Stalinist regime and only one man's writ (Kejriwal) runs". "It is farcical to appointment Ashish Khetan in the disciplinary committee when he has made personal comments against me," he said. Bhushan also said that the removal of Lokpal is against AAP's constitution. "Only Lokpal can appoint his or her successor," he said.
Yadav too said that as per party's constitution, the national executive has no authority to appoint a new Lokpal. "Shocked to hear that a party built on Lokpal movement has thrown out its own Lokpal," he said.
The AAP on Sunday also released the entire video of Kejriwal's speech at its national executive meet on Saturday. However, since the video only features Kejriwal, the accusations made by Yadav and Bhushan about bouncers misbehaving with dissenting voices in the meeting could not be established from it.
The party also announced that it will organise a protest outside Parliament against the central government's ordinance on land acquisition on April 22 for which its has constituted a six-member committee for supervising the preparations.
Further, a committee to be headed by senior leader Sanjay Singh has also been formed to ascertain the current status of party organisation in different states. The committee has been given 15 days time to prepare a report on this. This report will form the basis for the road ahead, including the state of preparation for contesting elections, if any, in future, the party said.
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