Chadha terms AAP charges as 'lies'; state issues ignored: Party
New Delhi, April 5 -- The spat between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its Rajya Sabha member Raghav Chadha intensified on Saturday with the sidelined leader releasing a video message on X, claiming that his purpose in the House is to raise public issues and not create ruckus. He also dismissed all allegations by the AAP and called them blatant lies.
The AAP on Friday accused Chadha of being silent on pressing national concerns and not joining the Opposition walkouts in the House. The party replaced Chadha with Ashok Kumar Mittal as the party's deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha.
Describing it as a scripted and coordinated attack against him, Chadha rejected the claim. "It is a blatant lie. I challenge the party to present CCTV footage of a single instance in the House when I did not support the Opposition."
Quoting from the movie 'Dhurandhar', Chadha said, "All these lies will be unmasked. Kyunki mai ghayal hoon, isiliye ghatak hoon' (I am wounded, therefore I am dangerous)."
On the party's allegation that Chadha refused to sign the impeachment motion against the Election Commissioner, he said that he was never asked to sign the motion.
"AAP has 10 Rajya Sabha MPs, out of whom seven did not sign it. If this was truly the reason for the action taken against me, the same standard should have applied to everyone," he said.
Chadha said that he did not want to respond, but had he remained silent, the repeated lies might have appeared true to some. "The first allegation they put against me was that I did not walk out with the opposition. This is a white lie, and I challenge you (AAP) to give me one example, one incident, where opposition walked out and I didn't support them," Chadha said. The MP said his focus in Parliament has been on raising public issues.
"From Punjab's water issues to air pollution in Delhi, poor conditions of government schools and the problems being faced by passengers travelling in trains... I raised such issues," he said, adding that he goes to Parliament to "create impact, not ruckus" as it runs on taxpayers' money and it is his responsibility to highlight their concerns.
"I just want to say that all three allegations, all these lies, will be unmasked. All questions will be answered," Chadha said in the video statement titled "Three Allegations. Zero Truth".
Senior AAP leaders in Punjab unit hit back at Chadha claiming that he failed to raise Punjab's key issues in Parliament and critical issues like GST losses and flood relief were ignored.
In a joint statement, Punjab finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema, state AAP president Aman Arora and party spokesperson Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal said all these issues were repeatedly conveyed to Chadha, "but he did not speak even once before the PM on these issues. This clearly shows a compromise".
"Raghav Chadha was elected to the RS by Punjab's MLAs with the expectation that he would strongly represent the state's concerns at the national level. However, he completely avoided raising even a single sensitive issue related to Punjab," Cheema said.
Aman Arora said the party was founded on the principle of fighting for people's rights without fear, and any deviation from that path is unexpected and unacceptable. AAP Punjab spokesperson Dhaliwal added, "There is deep disappointment over Raghav Chadha's silence on the plight of flood-affected people in Punjab." The leaders highlighted that key issues such as Rs.8,500 crore RDF dues, Rs.60,000 crore GST losses, and Rs.1,600 crore flood relief were not raised despite communication....
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