At HQ, AAP stays combative: ‘Govt will not fall… what about parliamentary secys in BJP states?’

At room number 15 inside the office, a battery of at least 35 lawyers are asked to assemble. It is from here that the AAP plans the “future course of legal action” on the crisis.

AAP MLAs outside the Delhi High Court on Friday. The court refused to grant interim relief. (Express Photo by Prem Nath Pandey)

Outside the waiting area at the AAP office in Rouse Avenue, Burari MLA Sanjeev Jha is the lone partyman addressing queries from the media and party workers. “We have not even received any official communication. But I must tell you — it is less of a legal issue and more a political one,” Jha tells party workers. “There is nothing to worry about. The government will not fall. We will fight this.”

Around the same time, four of his colleagues had taken the battle to the Delhi High Court to challenge the Election Commission’s decision, which recommended disqualification of 20 AAP MLAs — including Jha — for holding an ‘office of profit’. At the AAP office, Jha flags a four-page document, which he says will demolish the EC’s case. It contains details of states across the country where MLAs are also parliamentary secretaries. More importantly, he points out, it has details of four BJP-ruled states — Rajasthan, Nagaland, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh — where the government continues to have parliamentary secretaries.

“The highest number of parliamentary secretaries is in BJP-ruled Arunachal Pradesh, at 31. The Sikkim government has 11 parliamentary secretaries. And Congress is not an exception. Meghalaya, at present, has 18 parliamentary secretaries. So, the question is, why has the EC chosen to recommend disqualification of only AAP legislators to President Ram Nath Kovind?” he says.

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At room number 15 inside the office, a battery of at least 35 lawyers are asked to assemble. It is from here that the AAP plans the “future course of legal action” on the crisis. “It is 70% political and 30% legal. If the matter was filed by the petitioner against the BJP government, it would have been dismissed. However, we have to be very clear as to how the appeals will be filed in each case. We are brainstorming as to what our defence will be. On the ground, there will be no change as the government continues to have a majority. But the MLAs are disheartened by the decision. Hence, we have to fight this legal battle,” says a member of the legal cell after the meeting.

AAP MLA Alka Lamba, sitting inside room number 11, has a busy day ahead with back-to-back TV debates lined up. “The law says that an accused should be given an opportunity to be heard. But the EC did not even give us this basic right. I did not even take a single rupee or enjoy any privilege, so how does the question of profit arise? It is only a political battle. We believe in democracy and are not afraid of bypolls,” she says.

Kaunain Sheriff M

Kaunain Sheriff M is an award-winning investigative journalist and the National Health Editor at The Indian Express. He is the author of Johnson & Johnson Files: The Indian Secrets of a Global Giant, an investigation into one of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies. With over a decade of experience, Kaunain brings deep expertise in three areas of investigative journalism: law, health, and data. He currently leads The Indian Express newsroom’s in-depth coverage of health. His work has earned some of the most prestigious honours in journalism, including the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award, and the Mumbai Press Club’s Red Ink Award. Kaunain has also collaborated on major global investigations. He was part of the Implant Files project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which exposed malpractices in the medical device industry across the world. He also contributed to an international investigation that uncovered how a Chinese big-data firm was monitoring thousands of prominent Indian individuals and institutions in real time. Over the years, he has reported on several high-profile criminal trials, including the Hashimpura massacre, the 2G spectrum scam, and the coal block allocation case. Within The Indian Express, he has been honoured three times with the Indian Express Excellence Award for his investigations—on the anti-Sikh riots, the Vyapam exam scam, and the abuse of the National Security Act in Uttar Pradesh. ... Read More

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