New Delhi, Apr 4: Aiming to "restart" the journey of alternative politics, the rebel faction of AAP led by Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan has started mobilising volunteers for its upcoming 'Swaraj Samwad' Dialogue, prompting a section of the party to issue a veiled warning saying attending it would be considered "indiscipline".
The Yadav-Bhushan camp is using social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to publicise the Dialogue scheduled on Ambedkar Jayanti. However, it maintained that they did not want to create "unnecessary hype".
"What is your assessment of where the movement stands today? What should be the future direction of our movement? How should we proceed after 14th April?" reads the Facebook page of the initiative.
The group has also released a pre-invite for the event that would be held at IFFCO Chowk at Gurgaon from 10 am to 5 pm, saying it involves "restarting" the journey of alternative politics so as to remain true to the "original spirit" of the 'andolan' (movement).
The 'pre-invite' entails answering questions such as "is the party safe in the hands of the current leadership" or should it try to recover from "wrong hands".
"Should it make a fresh beginning? What should be the future direction of our movement? How should we proceed after 14th April?" it asks.
The document says that the movement that started "four years ago" faces many paths today including the belief that this "decline" is temporary and will be corrected soon.
"But what if the recent trends continue and we go from bad to worse?" it questions.
"There is another path of minor course correction, involving repair from within. But is that option available to us today? The third path leads away from politics altogether, into non-political movements and action. But is this not abdication of our historic responsibility?" it says in line with Yadav and Bhushan's recent statements where they have ruled out quitting politics.
The build-up to the Dialogue is witnessing a volley of allegations and counter-allegations with the dissident camp accusing Arvind Kejriwal loyalists of trying to scuttle the event.
"The irony is that the party, which has always professed dialogues, is scared of a dialogue organised by the volunteers themselves," a leader said.
AAP leader Anand Kumar had yesterday accused the party leadership of threatening members, who are willing to attend the April 14 meeting, of "disciplinary" action.
"It has been told by a newly-appointed spokesperson of my party that anyone attending the Swaraj Samwad will be subjected to disciplinary action by AAP leader...Please avoid being dictatorial and trust the mind power and force of truth," he had said.
Although party spokesperson Adarsh Shastri denied the allegations saying, "We don't know what is happening on April 14. Not warned either."
However he added that the party may consider it "indiscipline if any office bearer goes for any such event". Shastri is in the 20-member panel of the newly-appointed spokespersons of the party.
Another senior party spokesman said the party had not taken "any such position".
The pre-invite for the dialogue also refers to murmurs of possible action against party workers who would attend it.
"This is not an act of rebellion, unless asking questions and seeking truthful answers is construed to be so. This is not an act of indiscipline, if anything, we seek the highest inner discipline that truth imbibes," it says.
Yadav and Bhushan, who were expelled from the party's National Executive along with Anand Kumar and Ajit Jha on March 28, have convened a meeting of their supporters on April 14 to chart the future course of action, amid speculations that they may a float a new political party.
Apart from Yadav and Bhushan, the invite includes prominent names like Timarpur MLA Pankaj Pushkar, resigned National Executive member Christina Samy, party's Lok Sabha candidate from Bastar Soni Sori, suspended NE members from Uttar Pradesh Rakesh Sinha and Vishal Sharma Lathe and suspended Punjab State Committee Member Manjeet Singh.
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