The Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday continued to raise the pitch for a public debate among the chiefs of the three prominent political parties in the capital, asking them to explain their stand on “issues that affect the city”. Leaders Yogendra Yadav and Ashish Khaitan said the AAP would produce white papers on Delhi’s problems at regular intervals and encouraged the BJP to respond to their ideas in a debate. “The idea of a debate is to discuss issues that are important for the people. The BJP’s CM candidate has, in the past, stood for a presidential style debate. Therefore, Kejriwal invited her to a debate,” Khaitan said. “Kiran Bedi said this is not the time for debate, but for delivery. We believe that the time for delivery is after government is formed. A debate to show where parties stand on issues should be held ahead of polls,” he said. In a white paper, the leaders spoke of the issues of power debt, buying expensive power from discoms, fuel supply and the need to bring in competition in the market. Meanwhile, Congress leader Ajay Maken challenged Kejriwal and Bedi for a debate, adding that if Bedi was unwilling, he and the AAP chief could hold the event. “I accepted the challenge but Kiran Bedi turned it down. She doesn’t want to answer and only wants to say what she has to say. She can’t run Delhi if she can’t even debate. I challenge Kejriwal for a debate at any place or at on any channel,” Maken said. Yadav, however, said there should be no debate if the “two leading players in the elections were not involved”. Khaitan echoed Yadav’s view and said if the debate was held without a BJP participant, it would be an “injustice to the people”.
