Vinod Binny's AAP outburst: Real concern or just sour grapes?

Disgruntled Aam Aadmi Party MLA Vinod Binny today held a press conference in New Delhi to announce his grievances about Arvind Kejriwal’s party. Though he kicked off his press conference on the pretext of addressing his concerns about issues of governance, it soon dissolved into an angry rant about AAP’s internal practices that Binny was in disagreement with. He started the press meet by referring to the 700 litres free water promise that the AAP had made in its manifesto. “Delhi residents were tricked by word play. The manifesto mentioned that 700 litres of water will be given for free. But a clause was added that if someone uses more than 700 litres of water, that person will have to pay for the entire quantity of water. How does that make sense? AAP tricked people,” he said. He also repeatedly said that AAP had conned the people of Delhi by adding the clause and not talking about it in public. However, when the Jal Board had announced the decision to give 700 litres of free water to all Delhi households with a working water meter, it had categorically mentioned during then press meet that if more than 700 litres of water was used the entire water will have to be paid for. [caption id=“attachment_1343073” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Vinod Binny. IBN Live.[/caption] Then Binny went on to allege that electricity bills have not been subsidized as promised, and his understanding of the internal discussions on the issue showed him that not everyone would stand to benefit from the move. “Kejriwal had promised that if you have run up a bill Rs 1 lakh, you’ll have to pay a bill of Rs 50,000. And if you have a bill of Rs 1,000, you’ll pay Rs 500. But they are now coming up with a policy which will not benefit everyone. They had promised slashed bills for everyone irrespective of the fact that there are commercial establishments alongside households,” he said. He then went on a tirade against the party, failing to veil the fact that he wasn’t happy about having been denied a cabinet berth and a Lok Sabha ticket consequently. “They have not made any effort to pass the Janlokpal yet. If they don’t do it by 27 January, I will go on a hunger-strike if required,” he said. “You can’t give people dates and don’t adhere to it. They have made the water free to appease and con people,” he added. Then, in an animated voice, he came to the issue of distribution of tickets for the Lok Sabha polls. “There are several forms of corruption. Taking someone’s rights and giving it to someone else, is also a form of corruption,” he said, finally making it clear, where his outburst stems from. “Shazia Ilmi, Kumar Vishwas, Gopal Rai are already campaigning in the constituencies they are supposed to fight the Lok Sabha polls from. When then is the party making a show of taking public opinion before choosing its candidates,” he says. Again, he didn’t mention which constituencies Ilmi and Rai are campaigning in. He only mentioned Kumar Vishwas’ rally in Amethi and says that there has been no formal announcement of his candidature. However, Vishwas himself had announced long back that he will be contesting from Amethi and had even invited Modi and Rahul to fight from the same constituency. In fact, that is the reason he was made to lead AAP’s Amethi rally. Binny, however, chooses to ignore that development and instead accuse the party of not choosing poll candidates democratically. He alleged that AAP was a party that could only rustle up drama and could take no solid action. He then went on to suggest that the Congress and AAP are hand in glove in conning the people of Delhi. Asked where he procured the information from, Binny was only willing to quote ‘sources’. “I don’t have any proof. Sources told me that they are meeting and taking decisions together. Behind the declarations of transparency a sinister plan was taking shape,” he said dramatically. “When I joined AAP, the party had nothing. What could they have given me. They used my name and my suggestions to win the polls. I have made the party stand on its feet,” he claimed, debunking suggestions that he is disgruntled at being left out in the cold. “Arvind Kejriwal runs the party like an autocrat,” he then alleged. “My name had come up in the list of ministers. I went to the Left Governor and told him I don’t want to be a minister,” Binny said, without caring to explain why he refused to become a minister when the party had included his name in the list. “I am not after power. I am not quitting the party. But I will protest the malpractices,” he said, “I will also back them on the issues that I agree with.” From this particular rant at least, the AAP can’t count that out!