In a damage control exercise, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday maintained it was not in favour of withdrawal of the Bharat Ratna conferred on late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and that such a demand was not part of the resolution adopted on the anti-Sikh riots issue in the Delhi Assembly on Friday.
Amidst reports that AAP and Congress party could go for a tie-up in the coming Lok Sabha elections, the party also made it clear that it had not demanded the resignation of its MLA Alka Lamba, a former Congress activist.
Addressing a press conference, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who was not present in the House while the resolution was passed, also said that the demand for withdrawal of the award was raised by an MLA (Jarnail Singh) and not by the party.
"The party has no such intention to demand the withdrawal of the award," he said.
There was confusion over the Assembly proceedings with media reporting that the House passed a resolution demanding withdrawal of the Bharat Ratna award given to Rajiv Gandhi and the party denying that the demand was part of the resolution.
The speed with which the party reacted to the development and held a press conference on Saturday led to speculation that AAP was keeping the doors open for an understanding with Congress to fight the Lok Sabha polls and to be part of the larger opposition alliance being talked about.
AAP MLA Jarnail Singh on Friday demanded that the "Bharat Ratna" conferred on the late Prime Minister be taken back as he had allegedly justified the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. He made the demand after reading a resolution in the Delhi Assembly, demanding justice to the victims of 1984 riots.
Sisodia said that the party had not demanded the resignation of any of its MLAs. "All MLAs are with the party and no resignation has been demanded from any of the MLAs."
The speculation about the party demanding the resignation of Lamba surfaced on Friday after she claimed that she was "put under pressure" to support the resolution and withdrawal of the award, which she resisted and walked out of the House.
On Saturday, she also said that she was "not resigning".
Lamba said that she was happy that the party had supported the award given to Rajiv Gandhi and that the party wanted justice for the victims of 1984 riots.
"Our aim is to ensure justice to the victims of 1984 riots," Sisodia said adding that there was "no such intention" of the party to demand the withdrawal of the award given to the former Prime Minister.
The Delhi Assembly had a short-duration discussion on the 1984 riots during the two-day session on Thursday and Friday.
The last member who spoke on the discussion was Jarnail Singh, who placed his demand for the award withdrawal, "which was not part of our original resolution". AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj, told the press conference.
"It was just in a form of a proposal," he added.
Bhardwaj contended that an amendment to a resolution could only be passed after a separate voting.
"The MLAs propose various amendments to different resolution, but only those amendments are passed which are put separately for voting," He said.
Referring to the allegations made by Congress leader Ajay Maken and BJP MLA Vijender Gupta, Sisodia said the parties, "which are involved in 1984 and 2002 riots should not say anything and should keep their mouth shut".
On Friday, Maken had said that the "true colours of AAP have come out in the open! I have always believed that AAP is the B team of BJP."
Gupta, on the other hand, had said, "the AAP leadership is working on the directions of Congress and are misguiding people."
Delhi BJP President Manoj Tiwari said there was complete confusion on this resolution. "This shows the real character of AAP. If the resolution was adopted in the Assembly yesterday, what was the need for AAP now to deny that," he said.
--IANS
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