Bharti was wrong, should apologise, says Aruna Roy

Delhi Law Minister Somnath Bharti should acknowledge that "he is in the wrong" and apologise and the Aam Aadmi Party government should refrain from protesting on the streets, activist Aruna Roy said here Friday.

Delivering a lecture on "Idea of India and Citizenship" at the Indian Social Institute here, Roy criticised Bharti for his vigilante-style action against Ugandan women.

"There is a black vs brown issue in Delhi. If you are black, everything is wrong with you... he should acknowledge that he was in the wrong," Roy told IANS referring to Bharti.

She also took on AAP leader Kumar Vishwas, saying she was "surprised by his audacious poems" mocking nurses from Kerala as well as Muharram procession.

"One person (Vishwas) who does poetry makes fun of nurses from south India and laughs at Muharram. How can they do this? We need accountability from these people," Roy stressed.

Roy said the AAP government in Delhi needed to understand the "power of the chair" and that an elected government should not resort to street protests.

"When you are elected into a system, you cease to be a movement. If you are unhappy with some issues, there are official channels that should be explored," she said referring to the 33-hour roadside protest of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his ministers in the heart of the capital.

However, Roy acknowledged that AAP has set some new standards in the country's political arena and said it needed more time to prove itself.

"It's too early to assess its performance. We'll have to wait and see what it does on issues like housing for slum-dwellers, water connections for poor etc."