AAP founder quits over anti-women stance
Former diplomat Madhu Bhaduri says party prejudiced against women, after she was “heckled” at party meeting.
Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi (Common Man) Party is facing allegations of prejudice against women after one of its founder members, former diplomat Madhu Bhaduri, quit the party alleging ill-treatment of women.
Bhaduri quit on Sunday and alleged she was heckled by members during the party’s National Council meeting on Friday when she raised the burning issue of the ill-treatment of African nationals during a midnight raid led by AAP minister Somnath Bharti on January 16.
“The Aam Aadmi Party has become a prejudiced party. There is a lack of social awareness in the party”, she told reporters after quitting.
Bhaduri had moved a motion in the meeting for the party “to tender an apology to the women from Uganda and Nigeria living in Khirki Extension” in Delhi. Her motion was struck down and she alleged that she was shouted at and forced to leave the podium. “I was literally chased out of the meeting”, reports quoted her as saying.
A former ambassador to Portugal, Bhaduri was a member of a panel to formulate the AAP’s foreign policy. “In this party there is no space for women and we are not considered humans”, she told NDTV channel.
Since it took charge of the Delhi government a month ago the AAP has been accused of poor conduct towards women by its ministers and leaders.
Chief Minister Kejriwal’s three-day protest in Delhi on January 20 for the “protection of women” evoked mixed responses. Senior party leaders like Kumar Vishwas’s stand-up comic lines against women from South India and law minister Bharti’s raid on the homes of African women in Delhi evoked sharp criticism.
Bhaduri’s dissent follows the expulsion of AAP legislator Vinod Kumar Binny who criticised party leader Kejriwal of being a “dictator” and a “liar” last week.