Atishi Marlena letter reveals how Shanti Bhushan bullied Prashant to break from AAP, Kejriwal

After being unceremoniously dropped along with Yogendra Yadav as a spokesperson for the Aam Aadmi Party, Atishi Marlena has reportedly written a letter to senior party leaders dissociating herself from the former psephologist and lawyer Shanti Bhushan. In it, she has said that the senior Bhushan was responsible for the attempts at reconciliation falling through. According to a report, Marlena has written to senior leaders saying party leader Sanjay Singh had almost evolved a consensus among the various factions of the party, but it was undone after Bhushan refused to accept the terms because his father Shanti Bhushan refused to accept them and threatened to move out of the family home. “When I found the final reason for the refusal of this agreement by your side I was appalled. Prashant-ji you refused to accept the terms because Shanti Bhushan said ’no’. The same Prashant Bhushan who can take on the strongest forces in this country, did not agree to something in the larger interests of the party because his father said ‘No’; because Shanti Bhushan ji said that he would leave the family home,” she reportedly wrote in the letter. [caption id=“attachment_2187605” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Marlena has dissociated herself from Yadav and Bhushan. Image courtesy: Twitter[/caption] Marlena wrote that this decision would go down as one of the ‘gravest mistakes of our time’. In the letter she also reportedly writes admitting to the fact that there are ‘shortcomings in the organisational structure and processes’ and Marlena admits that the questions raised by Bhushan were valid, she disagreed with ’the style of bringing the organisation to the point of crisis, for addressing these questions’. Marlena reportedly says she still admires Bhushan and Yadav but that she doesn’t believe that their paths can be common any more. The letter comes as no surprise given even Marlena has been shifted out of being the party’s spokesperson and it’s something that reportedly finds mention in the letter as well. Marlena has reportedly said that because she, like others who tried to remain neutral had been under a cloud of suspicion from the group that backed the ousted duo . “I myself was accused by Prashant ji of ‘having lost my moral compass’, by Shanti Bhushan ji of ‘being ready to give up my credibility for the attention and fame received from television appearances’ by Yogendra ji of ‘being ready to change my opinion based on one phone call from Arvind and by those close to Arvind of ‘being in the PB-YY camp and installing their key people in Mission Vistaar’,” she reportedly wrote. Marlena perhaps is the first of the AAP’s leaders who have faced action during the course of the ouster of Bhushan and Yadav from the party’s decision making bodies,  to try and affirm her loyalty to the party over the two former leaders. As the party heads towards 14 April, when Bhushan and Yadav are scheduled to confer with their supporters to decide on the course forward, it may not be the last such letter that the AAP receives from those believed to have strayed from the party.