Training their guns on AAP, a group of eminent people today strongly condemned certain "new political parties" of unleashing a "misinformation" campaign to create "confusion" and ensure division of vote against the UPA government's "corruption and scandal-ridden" tenure.
In a joint statement, they warned the people to be wary of efforts by such parties to hoodwink the voters by tarnishing all political parties with the same, undifferentiated brush, "making seemingly bland but dangerous statements that all parties are similar".
The statement was issued by retired Gen S K Sinha, ex-Director IB Ajit Doval, veteran journalists M V Kamath and M J Akbar and former DG Punjab Police P C Dogra.
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The others mentioned in the statement are noted Kannada writer S L Bhyrappa, human settlement and environment expert M N Buch, management expert Preetam Singh, academician kapil Kapoor, economist Bibek Debroy, poet Arjun Dangle and scholar Mukul Asher.
"This cynical attempt to delink political philosphies, ideologies and ideals from everyday politics is condemnable and does not serve our democracy," the statement said.
In an apparent reference to the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) and some others, it said, "we are shocked that some new-fangled political groups are targeting the BJP more than the Congress, which has been in office for 10 years now".
It contended that the linkage of such groups to "fissiparous tendencies" rising their ugly head in Jammu and Kashmir has not gone unnoticed.
The eminent group urged such parties not to play with and not make irresponsible pronouncements about the sovereignty of the nation, including key and cherished territorial issues.
Targeting AAP, they said parties that have failed in offering even a semblance of good governance are pushing the principal issue of a corruption-free administration-an essential element of good governance-to the periphery.
