Prashant Bhushan broke off talks because of his father: AAP’s Marlena

Last week, Marlena, who thus far has kept her silence, was removed from the AAP’s list of spokespersons.

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Marlena wrote that “much of the credit” for the party’s success and survival after May 2014 must “go to Arvind”.

“The tragedy of our party has been that those differences transformed into an individualised battle, which was marked by a complete breakdown of communication, reading too much between the lines, suspicion and mistrust,” she said.

Speaking of the difficulty of those that attempted “to stay neutral” she said, “I myself was accused by Prashantji of having ‘lost my moral compass’, by Shanti Bhushanji of being ‘ready to give up my credibility for the attention and fame received from television appearances’, by Yogendraji of ‘being ready to change my opinion based on one phone call from Arvind’, and by those close to Arvind of ‘being in the PB-YY camp and installing their people in key positions in Mission Vistaar’.”

Marlena said while she agreed that there were shortcomings in the organisation, and there was a need to hold itself to ethical standards, she disagreed with the “style of bringing the organisation to the point of crisis”.

Marlena said while many on the sidelines feared that talks had broken off, it was Sanjay Singh’s “remarkable effort” that brought both sides to a reconciliation that included a collective apology, time-bound institutional changes under Prithvi Reddy, and six new neutral members of the National Executive.

“When I found out the final reason for the refusal of this agreement by your side, I was appalled. Prashantji, you refused to accept these terms because Shanti Bhushanji said ‘no’…because Shanti Bhushanji said he will leave the family home… so when you presented a one-sided picture in the public domain and did not share this truth, people were misled into believing that the party was not ready to work on any of these issues. This is just wrong.”

Signalling her continued support for the AAP led by Kejriwal, Marlena wrote, “One of the reasons I joined the AAP was because at the time Prashantji’s presence assured me that the AAP will stay the course in the fight against crony capitalism and communalism. Today, I believe, the AAP is still that force and now Prashantji may not be a part of this force, but standing against it.”

Later in the evening, the AAP released a statement by Alok Agarwal, who was also part of the negotiations, which validated Marlena’s version of events.

Party spokesperson Raghav Chaddha also pointed to other political forces at play and said, “There are clearly forces that are trying to destablise us. It is Shanti Bhushanji who said that Kiran Bedi was the best choice for chief minister. It is clear that something else is afoot,” he said.

The response

Yogendra Yadav

In response to Marlena’s email, Yadav wrote that she had drawn her conclusions based on “one-sided reporting” of “that episode on March 26”. Yadav said there had been no agreement on institutional reforms, no agreement on credible names for the National Executive with Kejriwal rejecting the names of Meera Sanyal, Gul Panag, Atishi Marlena and Dayamani Barla, and no credible person or mechanism from which agreements made could be monitored.

Yadav said that it was he, and not Shanti Bhushan, who called off talks because they were not convinced that there would not be another breach of trust. “I disagreed with SB (Shanti Bhushan), for he was disinclined to accept any solution and appeared to allow his hurt to privilege larger considerations. But he asked me one question to which I had no answer. How do you know this negotiation is not a trick?” Yadav’s mail to Marlena said.

Prashant Bhushan

Bhushan said he wished Marlena had “discussed her unhappiness in person”. He said Kejriwal had gone back on “written and unwritten agreements” and that he had realised in retrospect that his father Shanti Bhushan’s assessment of Kejriwal “has been proved correct”. “As a well-wisher, I can only say this: do whatever you want but if you still try to work with Arvind, I don’t think you will be able to come out with your reputation intact,” Bhushan said.