New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party’s Rajya Sabha MP and former chief of the Delhi Commission for Women Swati Maliwal has accused party convenor Arvind Kejriwal’s personal secretary Bibhav Kumar of having “assaulted” her.
Maliwal’s allegations has kicked up a political storm, with rival Bharatiya Janata Party accusing Kejriwal of protecting Kumar, a close aide.
The controversy comes at a time when controversy is already roiling the Aam Aam Party (AAP), with the Enforcement Directorate threatening to name the party in the alleged Delhi liquor scam.
In the first episode of Instant Analysis, ThePrint’s political editor D.K. Singh speaks to Special Correspondent Sourav Roy Barman on Maliwal’s allegations, the mounting troubles for AAP and Arvind Kejriwal, the curious case of the party’s 10 missing Rajya MPs throughout all of this.
DK: What happened that day? What happened with Maliwal?
SR: So, on Monday morning, the version goes that Swati Maliwal had gone to meet Arvind Kejriwal at his residence, official residence, and around 9.30 (am), she dialled the police control room saying that Bibhav Kumar misbehaved with her and actually assaulted her. Subsequently, she also went to the Civil Lines Police Station, which is close to Kejriwal’s residence. But she didn’t lodge any formal complaint. She spent some five odd minutes and she quickly left.
And yesterday, the AAP officially acknowledged and admitted that something happened. Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh addressed a press conference where he admitted that Bibhav Kumar misbehaved with Swati Maliwal, and said that Kejriwal has taken strong cognizance of the matter and he would act against Kumar.
DK: Tell us something about Bibhav Kumar. He was Kejriwal’s private secretary until last month?
SR: Yeah, he was. Bibhav Kumar is actually a former video journalist and he joined the India Against Corruption Movement back in 2011. And since then, he has been with Kejriwal. Over the years, he grew close to Kejriwal and in 2015, he was made his personal secretary. (Last month) he was removed by the Delhi’s Directorate of Vigilance regarding his old case, which dates back to 2007 and where he had obstructed a public servant from discharging his duties.
Bibhav Kumar is essentially Kejriwal’s right-hand man. He handles everything, Kejriwal’s daily schedule, his appointments. And he is among the very few people who was allowed to meet Kejriwal even in jail. When Kejriwal was in jail, Bibhav Kumar was a constant by Sunita Kejriwal’s side, taking care of the family and everything.
DK: And who is Swati Maliwal? We have seen her sort of fiery activist. I understand that she has been with Kejriwal for a long time and that she started working with him when he was running his NGO Parivartan. So very old associates. Can you tell us about her?
SR: Very old (associates). They started working together when they (Manish Sisodia and Arvind Kejriwal) were running an NGO, Parivartan, back in 2006. She joined that and worked in the slums of Delhi on issues of ration and even RTI.
And she came to prominence in 2011, when Kejriwal came to prominence. She led the protest (in Delhi) in 2012, after the December 2012 gang rape case. She was the face of the protest.
In 2015, she was made the chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Women and held that position since from 2015 till January this year. She was obviously nominated to the Rajya Sabha early this year.
DK: We heard a lot about her (Maliwal) when she was in the US and Kejriwal was in jail. And because she was not very… she was not coming immediately. She spent several weeks in the US instead of coming back to Delhi and actually fighting it out on the streets as the other AAP leaders were doing.
SR: And the party leadership is not very happy with that.
DK: So that has been the talk of the town … that many of his close associates have gone missing. So, the Aam Aadmi Party has 10 Rajya Sabha MPs. And most of them are nowhere to be seen. Starting with Raghav Chadha. 2-3 you get to see. You have Sanjay Singh, who was in jail. You have N.D. Gupta. And you have Sandeep Pathak. These three are visible. Others have gone missing. Can you tell us about these Rajya Sabha members? Who is where?
SR: So, AAP has 10 Rajya Sabha MPs, apart from these three. All of them are businessmen. And they have been elected largely from Punjab. That is where… AAP has governments in Delhi and Punjab. So, you have Ashok Kumar Mittal, who is the founder and chancellor of Lovely Professional University in Punjab. You have Balbir Singh Seechewal, who is a prominent environmentalist. And you have Sanjeev Arora, who is a textiles exporter. I mean, he is a prominent businessman even in Punjab. And Vikramjit Singh Saini, owner of the Sun Group. So, these are all large businessmen. And they have Harbhajan Singh, former Indian cricketer.
So, all of these people, they have been completely muted all this while when Kejriwal was in jail, after he was arrested, the entire party was on the streets, these people were muted, they were silent, they stayed away.
DK: So, that puts a big question mark on why and how these people were brought into the Rajya Sabha. When you are in trouble, they go missing. And I am reading from your story, when you reached out to these MPs, what they had to say.
So, for instance, Sanjeev Arora is saying that he will not comment on this because the matter is sub-judice. And then he says that I also tweeted after the arrest saying that Kejriwal can be arrested, but not his ideas and thoughts’’. So tweeted…that’s about it.
Balbir Singh Seechewal is saying that he had already made it clear to the Aam Aadmi Party that he will not partake in the party’s political activities.(He says) “I am always available for issues related to the environment and water. There are other people with political issues.” Of course, Harbhajan Singh, he is busy doing cricket commentary. If you are watching IPL, you must be seeing him.
So, this is the set of MPs you have, who are busy with their own work. Of course, the three, Sandeep Pathak, Sanjay Singh and N.D. Gupta are out there. N.D. Gupta is actually pretty old. So, he is not very active in the field. But he is there. Seven of these MPs are nowhere to be seen.
Kejriwal, of course, needs to do a rethink as to when he sent somebody to Rajya Sabha, what are the considerations behind it? What kind of people should you be sending?
I am sure it’s a lesson Kejriwal has also learnt. That’s all from us in this episode. Please do let us know how you liked it, how you like this format. Please do send us your feedback. Thanks for watching.
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