Watch Nidhi Razdan: The issue with AAP in India

Gulf News

They say a week is a long time in politics and for the Aam Aadmi party or the AAP in India it has been a week of high drama as it lurches from one crisis to the next.  There is no doubt that the AAP has been at the receiving end of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) campaign to obliterate the party whether by using agencies like the ED or other means. But many of the problems with AAP are also self inflicted. This is now a moment of reckoning for the party. Will the AAP emerge stronger or will it disintegrate?   Read the full story here:  https://gulfnews.com/opinion/op-eds/can-aap-survive-the-political-tempest-in-india-1.102780356  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV  #UAEnews #India #politics

Transcript

00:00Well, it's been quite a week for the Aam Aadmi Party, which seems to be lurching from one

00:08crisis to the next, whether it is new fronts that have been opened by the Enforcement Directorate

00:13against them to the handling of the Swati Malewal case, which frankly, is quite a self-inflicted

00:19goal. Initially, the party leadership came out in defense of Swati Malewal, supporting

00:24her, agreeing that she had indeed been assaulted by Mr. K. Jeewal's aide, Vibhav Kumar, who

00:29has since been arrested. But then days later, the AAP completely changed its stand and accused

00:34her of being part of a BJP conspiracy to target them. They still not effectively explained

00:39how this U-turn happened. Now, for the AAP, this election, in a sense, is a moment of

00:45reckoning. It's true that the BJP and the government have really been gunning after

00:49them and after their leadership, whether it is Manish Shishodiya, whether it is Arvind

00:54K. Jeewal himself and other leaders. The AAP has also for the first time, you know, been

00:59named as an accused in a money laundering case. It's the first time a political party

01:03has been made an accused in a money laundering case. So they're clearly at the receiving

01:07end of so much from the BJP. But that's why how the party handles itself at this point

01:15becomes important. And they don't need self-goals like the one in the Swati Maliwal episode.

01:20There are so many questions to be asked of Mr. K. Jeewal's leadership. And part of the

01:25problem is just that, that he has, in a sense, made the AAP his personal fiefdom. That's

01:30at least how his critics see it. There are often decisions that are taken that others

01:35cannot question or do not understand, such as why were certain people selected as Rajya

01:40Sabha MPs for the party? Because most of them today are silent, even on Mr. K. Jeewal's

01:45arrest. A lot of these things will now become clearer in the next few weeks and months.

01:50But it's clear that this is a moment of reckoning for AAP.

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