AAP's NE member questions ousting of Bhushan, Admiral Ramdas

A senior AAP National Executive member has raised questions on the manner in which Prashant Bhushan and Admiral Ramdas have been removed from their respective positions, saying these decisions were taken in a hurry and without consultations of all members of the panel.

Rakesh Sinha, a member of the National Executive meeting, said that he was not informed about the meeting in which the crucial decisions were taken.

"I would like to bring to your notice that I came to know about this meeting through some journalists who called to ask me if I was attending the NE meeting. I was surprised and thought that it must be a PAC meeting since I got no intimation and I had received an SMS from your office on March 18 that there will be no meeting before or after the NC meet. Your SMS saying that it was an emergency meeting is well taken but it still does not explain why I was not informed," Sinha said in a letter to party secretary Pankaj Gupta.

He also questioned the sacking of Bhushan and Yadav from NE when a decision was taken to refer their cases to internal Lokpal.

"Unfortunately no action was taken on this NE decision and the two were removed from the NE on the same uninvestigated and hence unsubstantiated charges," he said.

Interestingly, Sinha is one of the NE member who not only opposed removal of Yadav and Bhushan from the PAC. On Saturday, when the two AAP leaders were ousted from the NE, Sinha walked out of the meeting in protest.

After sacking of Yadav, Bhushan, Ajit Jha and Anand Kumar from the NE, the second most important decision making body's voting members strength has been reduced to 17. Those present in yesterday's meeting were Arvind Kejriwal, Sanjay Singh, Manish Sisodi, Gopal Rai, Kumar Vishwas, Naveen Jaihind, Dinesh Waghela, K K Seveda, Illiyas Aazmi, Prem Wingh Pahadi, Habung Payang, Yogesh Dhaiya, Pankaj Gupta -- all belonging to the Kejriwal camp.

Christina Samy, Subhash Ware and Sinha, who has voted in favour of the duo were not present in the meeting. Even Mayank Gandhi, who abstained from voting in the last NE meet on March 4, was not present yesterday.

"I was hoping that such an emergency meeting will be used for discussion and planning only and that no major decisions would be taken (like our emergency meeting on February 27)," Sinha said.

He also questioned the removal of party's Lokpal and other decisions like sacking of Bhushan from the disciplinary panel in the meeting. "I find that some very important decisions have been taken in a hurry. The issue I feel most uneasy about, is the treatment we have given to our outgoing Lokpal. While appointment of new Lokpal was indeed due, I wonder if our outgoing Lokpal was given adequate opportunity to name his successor as envisaged in our rules," Sinha said.

He also questioned the removal of KK Seveda from the party's newly formed disciplinary panel. "I find that Mr KK Seveda has been excluded from the reconstituted disciplinary committee. I wonder if there is any specific reason for this," he said.

Sinha also sought clarity on party's Mission Vistar programme, aimed at spreading the organisational base. A decision which was in yesterday's meeting was taken that senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh is going to take up the matter of organisation in all the states.

"Does this mean that Mission Vistar has been abandoned? I hope to get some clarification on the Lokpal issue.However considering that all such letters,pleas and even NE decision not found to be convenient are ignored by the Party,I feel compelled to make this letter public in the interest of transparency in public affairs," Sinha added.