Madhu Bhaduri's resignation signals rise of an intolerant AAP

AAP leader Somnath Bharti’s midnight raid on a private house in Khirki extension, in which he and his supporters are accused of forcing four Ugandan women to undergo urine tests for proof of narcotics, found few takers despite the party’s decision to firmly stand by him and defend his actions. But it now turns out that not everyone in AAP condoned his actions. In what is definitely bound to be a setback for the fledgling party, one of its founder members, Madhu Bhaduri, resigned from all her party positions and quit the party, after not being allowed to condemn the incident. Bhaduri, who is on three party committees including gender justice, told the Hindustan Times that she had sent a resolution against Bharti’s midnight raid, but that this had not even been acknowledged by senior leaders like Prashant Bhushan. [caption id=“attachment_1370683” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image: Reuters[/caption] She added that an attempt to speak about the incident at the party national executive meet had been stopped by Yogendra Yadav who had told her not to create a scene in front of the media. According to Hindustan Times, the text of the resolution that Bhaduri wanted read was as follows: “The National Council of AAP unanimously resolves to tender an apology to the women from Uganda and Nigeria, living in Khirki Extension, who were forced to submit themselves to narco tests at the behest of some members and supporters of AAP on the night of 15/16 Jan, 2014. The party deeply regrets the humiliation caused to the women. The AAP distances itself from any racist comments made by the party and apologises for any such comments by its members and supporters. The AAP is not racist.” She later told other media organisations that AAP did not respect women. Although party spokesman Ashutosh refuted Bhaduri’s allegations, the fact remains that her allegations do paint a worrying picture of what the party is now standing for. The image of the party as portrayed in its most recent actions, is one of an intolerant, misogynistic party with a holier than thou attitude. And Bhaduri is not the only AAP member to raise concerns. In a Times of India editorial published last month, Captain Gopinath, who was one of AAP’s more high profile recruits, reiterated his demand that Bharti needed to be suspended. He writes, “Was the cause just? How can you demand suspension of junior police personnel without also suspending law minister Somnath Bharti at the same time? If police can influence witnesses so can Bharti who has greater power.” In a brilliantly argued column for _Firstpost_ , Dhiraj Nayyar said that given its multiplicity of leaders, the party could be compared to a big tent, with many heads that spoke in different voices. He noted however, that the party was disturbingly harkening more and more to the ‘head’ embodied by Somnath Bharti - anarchist and vigilante. He said: AAP has opted to don the mask (or should one say mantle) of Somnath Bharti, IIT graduate, lawyer and giant killer of Kiran Walia and Arti Mehra, two stalwart politicians of the Delhi Congress and BJP. Yes, Delhi’s Law Minister who led a mob against some hapless Ugandan women and tried to browbeat the Delhi Police – no masters of virtue themselves – into acting against the women without as much as a warrant. The same man who went to AIIMS to bully doctors. The very man who threatened to spit on the faces of Harish Salve and Arun Jaitley. The fact is that one section of AAP personified by Somnath Bharti genuinely believes only in a politics of vigilantism, blackmail and brinksmanship. In the end, such a politics will only create the same kind of cynicism as the system AAP rages against – the kind which revolts against “the minister is always right” attitude. There has already been some anti-AAP backlash. The middle and upper middle classes that were such admirers of Kejriwal and his party are hinting at some disillusionment with the party now. Many of Kejriwal’s middle class supporters who shook off their lethargy to actually stand in line and vote for him were conspicuous by their absence at his recently concluded dharna. This is a constituency that has come out in droves previously for the Lokpal agitation and the Delhi gangrape protests, a history that makes their absence all the more conspicuous. Although AAP may pretend to write off this section of the population as a bunch of ’elitist’ people who don’t want the corrupt system to change because they benefit by it (as charged by AAP media spokesman Ashutosh), Kejriwal cannot afford to alienate them completely. The Economic Times also did some basic number crunching and discovered that AAP’s online donations declined sharply the day after Bharti’s midnight shenanigans were revealed in the media, and continued to drop as Kejriwal went on his dharna. Perhaps kicking Bharti out and apologising for his actions might have helped calm a few furiously beating hearts. Or at the very least, if they had allowed leaders like Bhaduri to show the world that there not everyone in the party believed in the kind of vigilante politics practiced by Bharti. For reasons best known to itself however, the party has chosen to forge onwards along its chosen path. It will be interesting to see where this takes them.