New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party welcomes the construction of the Ayodhya Ram Temple, but wants the establishment of ‘Ram Rajya’ in the country, said AAP Lok Sabha candidate from the New Delhi constituency Somnath Bharti.
In an interview to ThePrint, Bharti said that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summons to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the excise policy case was a clear indication that the BJP was “losing the elections”.
Bharti also demanded the intervention of the Election Commission of India over the ED summons to Kejriwal, accusing the agency of “misusing” its powers at the behest of the ruling BJP.
“The Election Commission is duty bound to ensure that elections are free and fair. And that is why they must intervene immediately so that all misuse and abuse of the ED, the CBI against political opponents is stopped,” the INDIA bloc candidate said.
“They want to put Kejriwal behind the bar because they don’t have any response to his allegations, the way he solves people’s problems. And that is why they’re after him. The ED and the CBI have proven to be a political tool in the hands of the BJP.”
Bharti also accused the BJP of committing “treason” with the country through the electoral bond scheme. The BJP’s ideological pitches, be it the Ram Mandir consecration or the abrogation of Article 370, will fall flat due to its “failure” in improving the lives of people, he said.
The BJP won the New Delhi seat both in 2014 and 2019 with a vote share of over 46 percent and 54 percent, respectively.
“Wherever the BJP has done good, we have been supporting that. But people want solutions for unemployment, inflation, women’s security, falling growth rate, depreciating rupee, border crisis. There are a plethora of problems. People are done with this show business. I mean everybody loves Lord Ram, he’s our idol. But then, just by constructing a temple? We need to follow in his footsteps, establish Ram Rajya,” he said.
Bharti is banking on the fact that all the 10 assembly constituencies that come under New Delhi constituency are currently held by the AAP. As many as 20 out of 25 civic wards in the area are also with the AAP. “My victory as an MP candidate will complete the canvas,” he said.
All the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi are currently with the BJP. Under a seat-sharing pact for Delhi, the AAP and the Congress are fielding four and three candidates. Apart from New Delhi, the AAP will be contesting from East, West, and South constituencies, while the Congress field candidates in Chandni Chowk, North East and North West.
Bharti feels that people will accept the AAP-Congress alliance, despite the fraught history of their ties, recognising the need to save the country’s democratic institutions.
“It is high time that we all have to forget our past. We will all have to forget our differences and work only in the interest of saving the Constitution, saving the nation,” Bharti said.
He also took a jibe at his opponent Bansuri Swaraj, the daughter of late BJP veteran Sushma Swaraj, saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attack on dynastic politics amounts to a virtual indictment of the BJP’s decision to pick her.
“With all due respect, with all dignity. With all humility at my command, I would say Modiji wants her to be defeated. The PM says parivarwaad (dynastic politics) has to be defeated. Wherever he goes, be it Telangana or Bihar, he stresses on the need to defeat dynastic politics. Which means he wants Bansuri Swaraj to be defeated. I inherited neither politics nor a career in law,” Bharti said.
He also accused Bansuri, who is also a lawyer, of representing fugitive businessman Lalit Modi and “siding with the Manipur government” in the courts. In July 2023, Bansuri had argued in the apex court, which was hearing pleas related to ethnic violence in Manipur, that incidents of sexual violence against women in West Bengal and Chhattisgarh also need to be considered.
It had prompted the Chief Justice of India to observe that while crimes against women take place all over the country, the court was dealing with something which was of unprecedented magnitude.
“There is a situation of communal and sectarian strife in Manipur. So what we say is that there is no gainsaying that there are crimes against women taking place in West Bengal as well,” the CJI-led bench had said.
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‘Fought for fellow Indian’
Bharti also sought to draw a contrast between Bansuri’s track record as a lawyer with his own.
“Vikram Buddhi was caught and imprisoned by the US. I had taken it up as a movement in 2009. I went to America using my own money. I fought for him against the US government. I fought for a fellow Indian to get him out of the clutches of the US,” said Bharti, who pursued post graduation at IIT-Delhi.
IIT-Delhi alumnus Vikram Buddhi was charged and jailed in the US in 2009 for allegedly making online threats to former US president George W. Bush. New Delhi had urged Washington to follow “due process” following which Bharti had served as Buddhi’s counsel then.
Subsequently, Bharti said that he knocked on the door of the BJP and the Congress to make his political plunge. “But I was disappointed,” he said, adding that he was drawn towards Kejriwal who was then leading the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement, holding protests against alleged irregularities in the arrangements for the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
Bharti, who calls himself a “first generation” politician, said he also played a role in convincing Kejriwal to join politics. He was the law minister in the AAP’s 49-day stint in office, with outside support from the Congress between December 2013 and February 2014.
The AAP leader had a brush with controversy in 2014 when he was accused of leading a mob that carried out a “midnight raid” in Delhi’s Khirki Extension locality to bust an alleged racket of drugs and prostitution involving African nationals.
Bharti, however, remains convinced that he was hailed as a “hero” by the local residents of Malviya Nagar for his role in the Khirki extension case. “Today the entire area is thankful. It is freed from drug menace and prostitution menace. In the court, none of them (complainants) appeared. I was hailed as a hero by the locals. Those with vested interests went after me,” the Malviya Nagar MLA said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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