Is Raghav Chadha willing to take on the fight that needs to be fought in the country today? That is the question. …He is not: Atishi

It’s not as though you would assume that there is something wrong, a conspiracy, in the first instance. This has been going on, if you see, from the time of the arrest of Arvind Kejriwal. His (Chadha’s) total absence since then. But the party has not broken the relationship with him. There was an off-and-on involvement.

If you notice, we never said anything against him. In no forum has anyone ever said anything against Raghav. But the fact is that all of this was building up. And recently several instances have happened… like the impeachment motion for example, and his refusal to sign.

Second is the issue of walkouts. Third, it (the dissonance with Chadha) happened over the issue of LPG [shortage]…

So in the recent past, these issues have happened. Which sort of made it clear that he was not willing to speak anything against the BJP… At the core of our party’s ideology is the fight for democracy. How can someone be the deputy leader [of the AAP] in the Upper House if they’re not willing to take on the BJP?

BJP leaders are defending him and there is speculation that he may switch sides. Does Raghav Chadha still belong to AAP?

This is not a question of the Aam Aadmi Party, and not with the Aam Aadmi Party. Is Raghav willing to take on the fight that needs to be fought in the country today? That is the question. Which he’s not.

And it doesn’t matter whether he’s my friend or my colleague. That (the fight in the country) is the bigger issue at hand. And I think that he’s made his position clear. Maybe he doesn’t like the Aam Aadmi Party for X, Y, Z reasons. Why did he not sign the TMC impeachment motion? So it was not about the Aam Aadmi Party. Why did he not walk out when the opposition walked out? So that is not about the Aam Aadmi Party!

What has come across there seems to be some kind of a compromise with the BJP. Because if you see, it is not as though he is not speaking… He is speaking on issues. He is just not speaking on any issues against the BJP.

You’ve questioned why he was in London for an eye surgery when Kejriwal was arrested, even suggesting that he may have been trying to avoid getting arrested.

I used it as an example of one of the early instances where all of us were on the streets fighting. We were at the barricades, we were getting detained by the police. The way we were pulled and dragged…

But he did not speak. He was not there. At that point of time, we were giving him the benefit of the doubt, when he told us that he was having an eye surgery, we believed him. Not only did we believe him, we all went on national television and defended him. But now with hindsight, one thinks, maybe all this started then.