An Open Letter from Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav,

to the Volunteers of Aam Aadmi Party

Dear Friends,
We do know that the events of the past few days have deeply
disturbed our volunteers, be they in India or in different parts of the
world. The hope and enthusiasm created by the historic win in Delhi
has been dampened. Each volunteer like you wants to know
why this historic win has been followed by such deep differences
and disputes. All volunteers want that there should be no rifts and
fights at the top. When volunteers hear of differences between the
top leadership of the party through TV and newspapers, when they
hear allegations and counter allegations, not only do they feel
helpless, but they also feel insulted. This is causing us a deep sense
of pain and anguish.
Keeping in mind the partys best interests, as well as the sentiments
of volunteers like you, the two of us have not added anything to the
list of allegations and counter-allegations made in the last 10 days.
We answered some questions that were posed to us, but we
ourselves didnt ask any questions. We repeatedly appealed to our
volunteers and supporters that they should maintain their faith in
the party, as the party is much bigger than any individuals. We all
have our individual shortcomings, and that is the reason we have an
organization where we can complement each others shortcomings.
That is the reason the party is much bigger than any of us, and that
is the reason that we have worked with the party till today and shall
continue to do so in the future as well.
However, after four of our colleagues (Mr. Manish Sisodia, Mr. Gopal
Rai, Mr. Pankaj Gupta and Mr. Sanjay Singh) made a public
statement yesterday, we shall have to break our silence with a
heavy heart. Wew are now being pushed to respond to the
allegations made on both of us. Their statement putting forward the
majority opinion in the National Executive was communicated by

Aam Aadmi Partys Media Cell, as well as the official websites,

Facebook page and Twitter handles. Now if we remain silent, it
would mean that there is some element of truth in the allegations
made against us. That is the reason we want to put the whole truth
before you.
Before we go any further, we must clarify that in the
aforementioned statement, there were some allegations made
linking the two of us to Mr. Shanti Bhushan. As it is well known,
Mr.Shanti Bhushan made several statements before the Delhi
elections that tarnished the image of party and could have had a
negative impact on the preparations for the Delhi elections. His
statements caused unhappiness and dissatisfaction to the
volunteers of this party. On all such occasions, both of us made
public statements expressing our disagreement with his opinions
and statements. Since both of our opinion is not in agreement with
Mr. Shanti Bhushan, we believe that he should address any
questions related to these issues, in his own individual capacity.
Another issue that must be clarified and refuted is the allegation
being repeatedly made in the past week. It is being said that this
entire dispute is regarding the National Convenorship of the party.
It has been said that we have been hatching a conspiracy to remove
Arvind Bhai from this position and make Yogendra Yadav the
National Convenor. The truth is that we have NEVER discussed this
in any formal or informal meeting. In the National Executive
meeting on 26th February, when there was a proposal on this issue,
both of us voted that his resignation must not be accepted and he
MUST continue as the National Convenor of the party. Let us assure
you that whatever be the differences and disputes between us, the
issue of National Convenorship have never been an issue, and never
will be.
After realizing this truth, many volunteers have asked, If the
controversy is not over the post of the National Convenor, then
what is the dispute about? Why have such deep differences erupted
between the leaders of our party? So far we have maintained a

silence on these issues, so that differences remain within the four

walls of the party. However, we now feel that till you know the real
issues, you will have doubts and uncertainty in your mind.
Therefore, we are discussing the main issues that have been the
reason for the differences with Arvind Bhai and other colleagues in
the past 10 months. We want you to tell us, whether we should
have raised these issues or not?
1.
Soon after the results of the Lok Sabha elections, Arvind Bhai
proposed that we should one again take the support of the Congress
and form the government in Delhi. Despite our best efforts to
dissuade him, he and some other colleagues remained adamant on
this stand. Most MLAs also supported them. However, most
volunteers and leaders from Delhi and other parts of the country
opposed this strongly, as soon as they heard of this proposition.
Some even said that they would have to leave the party if such a
move was made. The party had petitioned the High Court asking for
dissolution of the Delhi Assembly. As it is, Congress had already
been decimated in the Lok Sabha. An alliance with the Congress at
this juncture would finish the standing of Aam Aadmi Party. We
raised this issue within the party. We urged that such a decision
should be taken according to the wishes of the PAC and the National
Executive. Despite these requests, a letter was sent to the
Lieutenant Governor and an attempt was made to form the
government. Such attempts went on right up to the dissolution of
the Assembly in November. (Here in this letter we are not disclosing
various other confidential details regarding this entire episode in the
interests of the party.) Both of us opposed the move to form a
government with the Congress, at every party forum. It was on this
issue that the deep differences between us began. We leave it up
to you to decide whether it was right to have opposed the
move of forming a government with the Congress. If we had
formed a government with the Congress, would we have
been able to win the hearts of the people of Delhi again?
2.
Soon after the results of the Lok Sabha elections Mr. Manish
Sisodia, Mr. Sanjay Singh and Mr. Ashutosh started putting forward
a strange demand. They said that all members of the PAC must take

responsibility for the defeat and submit their resignation to Arvind

Bhai, who should be allowed to reconstitute a new PAC, according to
his wishes and convenience. There was a demand for the dissolution
of the National Executive. Both of us, and a few other colleagues
opposed this decision. (Yogendra jis resignation from the PAC was
related to this issue.) If we didnt oppose such unconstitutional
moves, how would we have remained any different from the
Congress or the BSP?
3.
In the National Executive meeting in June 2014, it was
decided that the opinion of the volunteers should be taken
regarding the decision to fight elections in Maharashtra, Haryana,
Jharkhand and Jammu-Kashmir. After gathering the opinion of
volunteers, there was a majority opinion within the National
Executive that the decision of whether to fight elections or not
should be left up to the State units. However, Arvind Bhai did not
agree with the majority opinion. He said that is the party decided to
contest elections anywhere, he would not go and campaign. The
National Executive thereafter chose to overturn their decision and
accept Arvind Bhais opinion and decided not to contest any State
elections. Today in hindsight it seems that the decision to not
contest was advantageous to the party. However, the question
still remains as to how such decisions should be taken in the
future? Is it not correct to raise the question of autonomy of
State units in a party that upholds the ideals of Swaraj?
4.
In the month of July when there were rumours of some
Muslim MLAs from the Congress joining the BJP, there were some
anonymous communal posters put up in Muslim-dominated areas of
Delhi. The police alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party had put up these
posters. Mr.Dilip Pandey and two other volunteers were accused of
putting up this poster and arrested for it. The responsibility for
putting up this poster was taken by a volunteer, Mr. Amanatullah
and Arvind Bhai demanded his arrest. (Amanatullah was made the
Vidhan Sabha incharge and eventually the candidate for Okhla).
Yogendra made a public statement that such a poster was against
the ideology of Aam Aadmi Party. He also expressed his confidence
that our arrested colleagues had no hand in the matter of the

communal poster. On the one hand, the party said that they have
nothing to do with the poster, but on the other hand this statement
by Yogendra was presented as anti-party, and was used to poison
the minds of many volunteers against him. Do you think we
should have stayed quiet on this issue?

5. Karan Singh was ousted from the party on charges of anti-party

activities and for helping form AVAM. He was accused of sending an
SMS to party volunteers to leave AAP and join the BJP. However,
Karan Singh denied this and sensing foul play on the party's behalf,
to sully his image, he approached the party's disciplinary committee
headed by Prashant Bhushan to have the matter investigated
thoroughly. As the party office bearers did not show much
inclination or interest in trying to get to the root of the matter,
despite PB demanding a strict investigation, Karan Singh finally
approached the police to get the matter investigated independently.
It was revealed that another volunteer named Deepak Chaudhary,
and not Karan Singh, was responsible for sending out the SMS.
However, instead of upholding PB's intent to deliver judicious justice
on the party's behalf he too was implicated of supporting AVAM.
There is little doubt that later AVAM did indulge in anti-party
activities too. But from an ethical viewpoint if a volunteer
makes an appeal for a fair investigation should the party's
disciplinary committee not live up to that expectation?
6. In the run up to the recent Delhi elections both of us started
receiving complaints from party volunteers regarding the credibility
and suitability of some of the AAP MLA contestants. Volunteers
accused that the party was compromising its principles by making
winnability as the main criterion and overlooking the fact that some
of the candidates had criminal backgrounds or were hardly any
different from the MLA aspirants of other political parties. There
were also complaints regarding the sidelining of old party volunteers
and that the transparency of candidate selection in local party
committees was being compromised. Given the situation both of us
urged that detailed information regarding all candidates be shared
first with the PAC and later with the people. We suggested that any

final decision regarding MLA candidature should only be made after

a systematic discussion within the PAC - a requirement that would
also help us align with our party's constitution. In trying to uphold
the party's principles and standards, we were being perceived as
problematic who were creating distractions and diversions from
election work. Finally, due to our continued pressure a Lokpal was
constituted to investigate the candidature of 12 contestants. Out of
these the nomination of 2 got rejected, 4 were cleared and the
remaining six were allowed to file nominations with some abiding
preconditions. We would like to leave it to the judgement of the
volunteers to label our decisions and actions either as anti party or
upholding party principles.
It was to uphold the principles of transparency, democracy and
swaraj, on which our party was founded, that we raised these above
mentioned six issues as well as several other questions. We raised
these questions within only within the party and through
appropriate platforms. Also, so that these questions do not create
diversions or disruption of election activity we waited for the Delhi
elections to end and it was only on 26 Feb 2015 in the National
Executive meeting that we tabled the following four proposals
through our note:
1. A committee be appointed to uphold the core values and
principles of the party. In-depth investigation of matters such as the
2 crores funding cheque, distribution of liquor during campaigning,
etc. should fall within the ambit of this committee. This would allow
our party to articulate a clear stand of such matters and not deliver
mere lip-service like other parties.
2. State bodies of the party should have autonomy. Political
decisions regarding States should be decentralized and at least the
regional units should be able to take decisions regarding respective
local body elections.
3. Internal democracy as well as the organizational structure of the
party should be upheld and the meeting of the PAC and the National
Executive should be held as per schedule and in a systematic
manner.

4. The party needs to build mechanisms to be able to represent and

respect the opinion of the party volunteers better.

In return for trying to uphold these institutional principles we have

been made targets of false allegations and accusations. While our
core goal was to safeguard the unity and integrity of our party, and
we made every effort towards this, we are now being accused of
harming and damaging the party. It is being said that we both were
conniving to make the party lose the election, that we were carrying
out negative campaigns, that we were interested in wrangling the
post of the Convenor and so on among equally hilarious and
preposterous claims. The claims are so outrageous and child like
that one feels they are best left ignored. That even responding or
reacting to them will only bestow a sense of legitimacy and
importance to these charges, which they are of course not worth.
But, since these charges have been raised repeatedly, we think it is
worthwhile to respond to them and clear the questions and doubts
that have been perhaps surfacing in your minds and to clear the
facts.

Allegations have been made that Prashant Bhushan was aiding

activities that would lead to the party's defeat in Delhi. The
facts and issues around candidate selection have been
enumerated above. Prashant was visibly upset with the manner
in which candidates had been chosen. Prashant was deeply
against the party compromising any of its core principles to
ensure winnability in the elections and he continues to believe
that this will ultimately be the cause of the party's demise.
According to him to be a principled party was more important
than gaining a majority in the short term. He was also worried
that if the party fell short or just above the majority mandate
by a few seats, the candidates with questionable backgrounds
might try and blackmail the party and the party might even fall
prey to political horse-trading. To label Prashant Bhushan's

intentions and reasonable insecurities and doubts within the

party and call them instead as efforts damaging the chances of
the party's victory is a severe case of misrepresentation.
How Yogendra has harmed the party has not been made
explicit in the accusations. As most volunteers know Yogendra
held between 80-100 jansabhas during the course of this
recent election, addressed the media everyday, conducted poll
surveys and predicted the thumping victory of the party, and
connected with volunteers over phone and google-hangouts.
Another charge being levied against Prashant Bhushan is that
he blackmailed the party that he would hold a press conference
to make public the issue of the credibility of the AAP candidates
and the process of their nomination. It is true that Prashant
Bhuashan was quite upset with the issue of candidate selection.
To address his concerns, Yogendra Yadav and fifteen other
eminent party members held a three day long meeting at the
residence of Prashant Bhushan. It was unanimously decided
that suspicious candidatures will be duly investigated by the
internal Lokpal and the decision of the Lokpal will be final. And
as per this decision, we abided with the decision of the Lokpal
and accepted it. Instead of treating these internal voices
as voices of dissent, should we not instead feel proud
that we are perhaps the first party in the country which
is trying to uphold the principle of transparency even in
the manner in which it selects its candidates?
In this spate of accusation, yet another one is that in a
breakfast meeting in Chandigarh Yogendra told correspondents
of 'The Hindu' that while deciding about the Haryana Assembly
elections the decision of the National Executive was sidelined.
This accusation was made by a woman journalist over a
telephonic conversation which was covertly recorded by an AAP
volunteer. However, when this accusation came into the public

fold, Shri SP Singh - an eminent correspondent - who was also

present at the same breakfast meeting, clarified that no such
information was given by Yogendra as was mentioned by the
woman journalist. In fact had such information been shared,
there is little reason why the other correspondents present at
that breakfast meeting would have not published it. SP Singh's
article
can
be
read
athttp://www.caravanmagazine.in/vantage/indian-expressyogendra-yadav-indian-journalism. It is also being said that
during the Delhi elections Yogendra shared further damaging
information with other journalists. If these charges have any
merit and any truth then why are the names of these
journalists and correspondents not being shared with
the public?
Another allegation made against us is that Prashant and
Yogendra supported the group called, AVAM. As has been
mentioned earlier that in the capacity as the Chairperson of the
National Disciplinary Committee, Prashant requested for a fair
investigation in the matter. How can the role of a judge be
called indiscipline? No evidence has been produced against
Yogendra on this count. In fact, AVAM actually wrote an email
and accused Yogendra, to which he had publicly replied. And
when AVAM attacked the party one week before the
elections, it was Yogendra who played a prominent role
in defending the party publicly.
However, since these allegations have been made, it is
necessary to have an investigation. The constitution of the
party says that any allegation made against a National
Executive member can be investigated by the Lokpal of the
party. Both of us are requesting the Lokpal to investigate
the allegations made against us by our four colleagues.
If the Lokpal finds us gulty, we would accept any disciplinary
action taken against us. What we dont understand is why the

investigation is not being carried out as per the constitution,

and allegations are only being leveled in the media.
Friends, this is a moment of grave crisis for the party, as also
an opportunity. After such a historic win, it is an opportunity for
historic achievements. This is not the moment for getting
caught in quibbling and arguments. The dispute in the past few
weeks have benefitted some vested interests and damaged and
weakened the party. The way out of this is to put all the facts
before the volunteers of the party. This party has been created
by the sweat and blood of our volunteers. It is the volunteers
who will have to decide what is right, and what is wrong. We
came into politics with the dream of truth and honesty.
You will have to decide whether the two of us have
compromised with the ideals of truth, honesty and
swaraj?
To reach all of you, we are sharing this letter with the media.
We hope that our minority opinion will be respected and
our letter would be shared, just as the letter of our four
party colleagues was shared. But we dont want to fuel the
public spectacle that this dispute has become in the media. We
dont want the party to suffer further damage to its image.
Therefore, after releasing this letter, we are going to maintain
silence. We appeal to all colleagues in the party to maintain
this silence so that wounds can be healed, and there can be an
opportunity for constructive thinking.
Friends, Arvind Bhai is in Bengaluru to improve his state of
health. We too are extremely concerned about his state of
health. Today Arvind is not only the uncontested leader of Aam
Aadmi Party but also the symbol of honest politics in this
country. All volunteers of this party want that he regain his
good health and return with renewed energy to fulfill his
responsibilities to the people of Delhi and the country. We are
confident that on his return Arvind Bhai will find a resolution to

this deadlock that will save the soul and the unity of this party.
We want to assure all of you that the two of us will cooperate
in every possible way to keep the party together, without
compromising on its ideals and principles. So far we have
welcomes any efforts at mediation, and shall continue to
welcome them. Whatever happens, we will not let our egos
come in the way of any solution. Our holding any posts and
positions is not of any relevance. All we want is that party
should stay true to its ideals and remain connected to the
dreams of lakhs of volunteers. Both of us shall continue to
remain within the party, and work according to its principles
and discipline.
Yours,
Prashant Bhushan ([email protected])
Yogendra Yadav ([email protected])