Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Saurabh Bharadwaj advised Raghav Chadha to fearlessly question the Bharatiya Janata Party ((BJP)-led central government on bigger problems rather than using Parliament’s time for “soft PR” like “samosas”.
Bharadwaj made the remarks in a video message in response to Raghav Chadha’s first statement to the AAP move of removing him as deputy speaker of the party in Rajya Sabha.
The decision on Thursday to drop Raghav Chadha from the Rajya Sabha post and replace him with Ashok Mittal sparked speculation of internal rift in the party. While Chadha stayed silent on Thursday, he shared a video message on Friday asking if it was a “crime” to raise public interest issues in Parliament.
Raghav Chadha has often made headlines for raising issues affecting the masses in the House. “Silenced, not defeated… My message to the ‘aam aadmi’” Raghav Chadha captioned his video.
‘Stop soft PR’
Responding to Chadha’s video, Bharadwaj asked the Punjab Rajya Sabha MP as to why he was “scared” to raise state’s issues and was instead talking about “samosas” in Rajya Sabha.
“Raghav bhai, I just watched your video. We are all soldiers of Arvind Kejriwal ji. We learned only one thing — the one who gets scared is as good as dead. Our job was to raise people’s issues and look the government in the eye while questioning it,” Bharadwaj said in his video response.
He said that over the past few days, it has been seen that whoever raises serious issues against the government, questions it, or speaks for the people, is treated like an enemy, adding that the dispensation does not care about “soft PR issues”.
“The government behaves like a dictator — banning people across social media platforms, whether Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube. FIRs are being filed and cases are being registered. The government does not care about soft PR speeches in Parliament. Since smaller parties get very limited speaking time in Parliament, that time should be used to raise important national issues rather than trivial matters,” he said.
Accusing Chadha of not joining the opposition bloc in actions against the government, Bharadwaj said, “Across the country, we have seen that before elections, genuine voters’ names are removed and fake votes are created, allowing the government to capture the system dishonestly and win elections. The same thing is happening in West Bengal. Recently, when opposition parties tried to bring a motion to impeach the Chief Election Commissioner, you refused to sign it.”
“Whenever the opposition walks out of Parliament on an issue, you do not join the walkout. For a long time now, I have not seen you raise any issue in Parliament where you directly questioned the Prime Minister or the BJP government. How can politics function with fear like this?”
“You represent Punjab, and you must raise Punjab’s issues. Why are you afraid to raise them,” he asked.
“In Gujarat, nearly 160 party workers faced false cases and FIRs were registered against them; many were arrested, yet you remained silent. When several of our leaders were in jail and Arvind Kejriwal ji was arrested as Chief Minister in what we believe was a false case, you were not even in the country — you went away and stayed hidden,” he said.
Bharadwaj said, in his opinion, real national issues must be raised with courage and fearlessness.
“You must look the BJP in the eye and question them. Otherwise, being soft makes no difference,” he said.
In fact, the BJP has been supporting you on social media since yesterday, Bharadwaj said asking Chadha to reflect — where he “started from”, where he has “reached” now, “what the country needs”, and how he “can do better.”