AAP’s biggest political asset under question

Aam Admi Party has the most credible and honest faces in today's politics. It is known for honesty and integrity. AAP has been voted to power only because of its pledge to fight against corruption in the government. Now, with the report appearing in a prestigious national daily about indictment of Delhi Law Minister Somnath Bharti by the CBI court in August last year for tempering with the evidence, embarrassment is in store for AAP if it fails to act against him. The CBI court judge had reportedly described Somnath Bharti’s action of influencing the prosecution witness as not only highly unethical and objectionable but also amounting to tempering the evidence. AAP must act against its law minister without any delay if it serious to keep its credibility intact. It is surprising that how AAP convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has defended his minister and said that court observation might be wrong because it was the sting operation carried out by Sonath Bharti and his client to expose the corruption of crores in the bank and the high-ups involved in it. He said that the court termed this sting operation as tampering of evidence, which is wrong. Having said that in the defence of his law minister, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has said that he respects the judiciary of the country. Kejriwal must know that the charity begins from the home. Unless and until, he acts against his own ministers and party leaders who have been found to be tainted in one way or the other, his credibility will also come under question and he will not be treated as a politician of different class and calibre any longer. As far as the sting operation is concerned, Kejriwal has always come out to defend his party leaders whenever they were shown to be allegedly taking money in the sting operation conducted against them. Just before the assembly elections in Delhi, a sting operation was carried out against some AAP leaders in which they were shown to be allegedly taking money to get some work done. It was caught on camera in the sting operation and played out on almost all national TV news channels. But in contrary to taking any action against AAP leaders, Arvind Kejriwal first demanded raw footage and when denied, he hastily gave clean chit to his party leaders. It was the initial stage of the party and it was also the first timer in elections. Delhiites had high hope from the AAP and it was getting popular very fast among them. So, Delhiites did not attach any importance to the sting operation against AAP leaders and condoned them at that time. However, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal should know that now his party is in power. If the honesty and integrity of AAP ministers and leaders continued to be questioned at frequent intervals and he continued to defend them, a message will go out automatically among the public all over the country that AAP is no different from the other established political parties in anyway. So if Chief Minister is really interested to overhaul the corrupt political system of the country, he must begin action against wrong doing from his home itself by acting against the indicted minister. The law court has indicted AAP law minister for tempering with the evidence and lower court’s decision had been upheld by High and Supreme Court also. It is sufficient ground for action against AAP law minister Somnath Bharti to uphold the party principle of zero tolerance against any wrong doing.