Somnath Bharti, AAP's portly, hyper-aggressive law minister, is rapidly becoming the pied piper of the Aam Aadmi Party, in danger of leading its leadership over the cliff to its destruction.
Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal today met Lt Governor Najeeb Jung and discussed the controversy surrounding Bharti, who is under attack for allegedly heading what was essentially a mob in a midnight raid on a private residence in south Delhi. The meeting came a day after various women rights activists and Delhi Commission for Women sought action against Bharti for allegedly taking the law into his hands. Bharti has quickly become a massive liability for the party which is already suffering after its badly-choreographed dharna in Delhi.
Somnath Bharti. Image courtesy Facebook
The AAP is, of course, attempting damage control. The party has reportedly advised Bharti to be "careful and humble" while making public statements.
But there is a silver lining in all this bad news. Bharti's legal woes offer AAP the perfect excuse to dump him. And if Mr Kejriwal still needs a good reason to do so, here are five that prove that the AAP would be better off not dragging Bharti along with them if they are serious about their ambitions of garnering mass support on a national scale.
Firstly, the law minister has to actually follow the law. After the events of the recent past, Bharti has lost all credibility when it comes to upholding the law.
As Firstpost columnist Dhiraj Nayyar pointed out: "The fact is that one section of AAP personified by Somnath Bharti genuinely believes only in a politics of vigilantism, blackmail and brinksmanship. In the end, such a politics will only create the same kind of cynicism as the system AAP rages against – the kind which revolts against "the minister is always right" attitude."
Bharti's recent actions go completely against the grain of the ideology AAP is attempting to project: one without reckless vigilantism, corruption and coercion.
Secondly, loudmouths are bad news, literally. Political leaders have no choice but to be media-savvy and self-disciplined in this 24X7 news era: this is something AAP leaders are clearly yet to learn - especially Bharti.
It was this Monday when Bharti courted controversy yet again with a quotable quote. Bharti said that he would want to spit on the faces of BJP leader Arun Jaitley and senior lawyer Harish Salve. "I want to spit at the faces of BJP leader Arun Jaitley and senior lawyer Harish Salve to tell them to mend their ways... I warn you, the public is going to hound you and beat you," the minister reportedly said.
He was reacting to Jaitley and Salve's criticism of the Aam Aadmi Party government for their unilateral action against foreign nationals and holding a dharna outside Rail Bhawan.
The AAP, which has made a virtue and electoral selling point out of a more enlightened kind of politics, cannot have its leaders making such irrational, bombastic statements.
Thirdly, mob politicians are political deadweights.
Somnath's antics contributed to the public sympathy being aligned with the Delhi Police, which takes some doing. The dharna became a sprawling mess which possibly irreparably damaged the AAP's reputation - a mess further worsened by Somnath's foray into a brazen, illegal and misogynistic assault on women.
Fourthly, aam aurats are watching. The raid proved that the 'aam aurat' has become less than an afterthought in the AAP's scheme of things.
A targeting such as that carried out by Somnath goes against the sense of security and human rights of all women in general, and of single and working women in particular. Television footage of the incident including Shri Somnath Bharti's own detailed statements, CCTV footage from AIIMS and the complaints by the women themselves, clearly indicate that Bharti endangered the women and instigated the crowd to violate their human rights, by branding them as prostitutes and asking the crowd to catch them.
The AAP risks losing the aam aurat vote: and the only action that can retrieve those votes is coming down heavily on Somnath's actions.
Lastly, it is time for the AAP to soothe the middle class feathers which were ruffled by Somnath's actions.
The Economic Times did some basic number crunching and discovered that AAP's online donations declined sharply the day after Somnath Bharti's midnight shenanigans were revealed in the media, and continued to drop as Kejriwal went on his dharna.
Kejriwal is in danger of losing his most enthusiastic constituency. There is nothing wrong with being pro-poor, but alienating regular middle class folks will undermine the underpinnings of his brand - built on the back of the lokpal movement. The sight of angry men invading houses and surrounding cars is the ultimate middle class nightmare - a big reason why they didn't support Kejriwal's dharna -- which instead made them lose faith in Kejriwal's leadership.
Sacking Bharti will go a long way in sending the message that Kejriwal has learnt from his mistake.
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