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I am ready: AAP’s Alka Lamba agrees to resign over resolution over 1984 anti-Sikh riots
Contrary to the AAP’s allegation, Lamba, an MLA from Chandni Chowk, said she had instead “opposed” the inclusion of the portion on Gandhi and was being “punished” for the same.
Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Alka Lamba was asked to resign from the party on Friday after a controversy erupted over a resolution in the Delhi Assembly seeking withdrawal of the Bharat Ratna awarded to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
Sources in the party said the action was taken against Lamba after she allegedly made “last-minute changes” to the resolution, on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, by adding mentions to Gandhi. The alleged additions to the resolution sought to withdraw the Bharat Ratna over the former PM’s comments on the 1984 riots.
Contrary to the AAP’s allegation, Lamba, an MLA from Chandni Chowk, said she had instead “opposed” the inclusion of the portion on Gandhi and was being “punished” for the same.
“Today, there was a proposal in the assembly to seek withdrawal of Bharat Ratna award to former PM Rajiv Gandhi. In my speech in the House, I was asked to support this motion. I did not agree and staged a walk out of the House. Now I am ready to face whatever punishment,” she said in a tweet in Hindi.
There was also controversy on whether the resolution seeking withdrawal of Bharat Ratna from Gandhi was passed in the House. While Assembly secretariat officials and Leader of Opposition, senior BJP leader Vijender Gupta, said the resolution was passed on a voice vote, AAP leaders said that the part about Rajiv Gandhi’s Bharat Ratna was “an amendment”, which had not been originally passed.
“It cannot be an amendment as it was read out and given as a part of the resolution that was tabled in the House for the first time. If AAP legislators want to amend the resolution by withdrawing the part about Rajiv Gandhi, it could be done in another session of the House,” said an official requesting anonymity.
Moving the resolution, Jarnail Singh, AAP MLA from Tilak Nagar, said in the House Gandhi justified the riots by his statements. “This House also resolves that Centre should withdraw Bharat Ratna from the then acting PM Rajiv Gandhi,” read the lines in the resolution, which officials in the Delhi secretariat confirmed was adopted by the House.
Earlier, Saurabh Bharadwaj, AAP legislator from Greater Kailash, said the lines about Gandhi was not a part of the resolution placed before the House and distributed among the members.
“Lines about late Rajiv Gandhi were added by one MLA in his handwriting proposing an addition/amendment about late Rajiv Gandhi. Amendments cannot be passed in this manner,” he said in a tweet.
He then said that the handwritten amendment was added by Malviya Nagar MLA Somnath Bharti and passed on to Jarnail Singh. Bharadwaj said that the portion about Gandhi was not adopted by the House.
Later, in a tweet, Lamba said, “I was asked to support the resolution demanding taking back the Bharat Ratna awarded to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Since I didn’t agree to this, I staged a walk out. I am ready to accept whatever punishment given to me.”
Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president, Ajay Maken criticised AAP for targeting the former PM. “Rajiv Gandhi sacrificed his life for the country. True colours of AAP have come out in the open. I have always believed that AAP is the BJP’s ‘B team’. They fielded candidates in Goa, Punjab, MP, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh just to cut the votes of Congress and help the BJP,” Maken tweeted.
Vijender Gupta, who was in the House, said the resolution, including the part concerning the Bharat Ratna, was adopted and that “it was now in the records of the House.” “They (AAP) are left red-faced by the move because they are planning an alliance with the Congress, which will obviously be affected by the resolution,” he said.
Delhi Assembly comprises 66 MLAs from AAP, three from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and one Shrimoni Akali Dal.
Former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar quit the party this week following his conviction in a case related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots that followed the assassination of the then PM Indira Gandhi. Rajiv Gandhi, who took over the reins of the party and the government following his mother’s demise, was posthumously awarded Bharat Ratna, the country’s highest civilian award, in 1991.
Friday’s resolution also sought to term the 1984 anti-Sikh riots as “genocide.”
