Rift in the Punjab unit of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over ouster of senior party leaders Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav from the political affairs committee (PAC) deepened further with another party leader from Kapurthala Bhai Baldeep Singh being served show-cause notice on Saturday for speaking against the decision.
Bhai Baldeep Singh, who contested the parliamentary elections as an AAP candidate from Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha segment in 2014 and received more than 1 lakh votes, was served the notice for raising question over the controversial move to sack Yadav-Bhushan duo on social networking site Facebook and raising objections over the issue during a television debate.
“I received the show-cause notice today through email from an unknown person and the notice was served to me in the name of Punjab AAP’s disciplinary committee head Daljeet Singh.
Since notice was not served from any known email address, I called up our party state convener Sucha Singh Chhotepur who confirmed that the party has issued me the notice,” said Bhai Baldeep Singh talking to HT.
“Inferences have been drawn that my Facebook posts over the issue of suspension of few senior leaders and my move to participate in a debate on Times Now on March 29 were anti-party activities. I fail to understand this,” said the AAP leader, who is also the chairman and managing trustee at ANAD foundation in Sultanpur Lodhi. “The show-cause notice emailed to me is now confirmed genuine…. it has been confirmed (at a personal level) to me that some people were trying to stereotype me - somehow - ever-since (sic),” he posted on his Facebook account on Saturday.
{{/usCountry}}“Inferences have been drawn that my Facebook posts over the issue of suspension of few senior leaders and my move to participate in a debate on Times Now on March 29 were anti-party activities. I fail to understand this,” said the AAP leader, who is also the chairman and managing trustee at ANAD foundation in Sultanpur Lodhi. “The show-cause notice emailed to me is now confirmed genuine…. it has been confirmed (at a personal level) to me that some people were trying to stereotype me - somehow - ever-since (sic),” he posted on his Facebook account on Saturday.
{{/usCountry}}Singh has also criticised moves of different leaders of AAP close to party chief Arvind Kejrirwal, including Ashutosh, Bhagwant Mann and Ashish Khetan, in the past few months. The AAP leader said he would file a detailed reply to the notice within three days.
“Freedom of speech is the basic principal of our constitution and no one can deny that.”