New Delhi: A day after he was removed as Aam Aadmi Party’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, Raghav Chadha on Friday said he was “silenced, not defeated”, sparking a heated debate within the party and political reactions across the spectrum.
Chadha said in her post on the X website: “Whenever I have the opportunity to speak in Parliament, I raise public issues… But is raising public issues a crime? Have I committed a crime?” He added that his silence in the Council should not be misinterpreted as a defeat. He also claimed that the party wrote to the Rajya Sabha secretariat asking it to prevent him from speaking.
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Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, Atishi, questioned Chadha’s silence on what she described as “pressing national concerns”. In a video, she wondered why issues such as alleged abuse of institutions and the ongoing LPG shortage were not raised. “Today, our nation is going through a massive crisis…and yet you raise no questions. Why do you seem afraid to speak out against it?” she said.
She claimed that Chad refused to support the proposal to dismiss the Chief Electoral Commissioner. Atishi said Chadha “walked away” when the party itself was going through a crisis.
“When our leader Arvind Kejriwal was arrested, we took to the streets to protest. We were arrested and thrown into police stations across the city. At that time, I went to London for eye surgery apparently for several months,” she said.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann echoed these concerns, pointing out that Chadha had gone against the party line. Addressing a press conference in Chandigarh, Mann said failure to speak out on issues such as alleged irregularities in voter rolls in West Bengal or participation in opposition strikes amounted to violation of the party whip. “If he is not willing to raise such issues, it constitutes a violation of the party line,” Mann said, adding that disciplinary measures in such cases were part of the party’s routine work.
Meanwhile, the BJP used the row to criticize the RJD’s performance. Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said, “Dialogue and democracy within the AAP have completely ended. When a senior parliamentarian has to use social media platforms to express his views within his party, it reflects a very worrying situation.”
These developments come in the wake of the AAP’s decision on Thursday to replace Chadha with Ashok Kumar Mittal as the party’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha.
Chadha, a Rajya Sabha MP since April 2022, has in recent months raised issues including toll charges, food adulteration, rights of gig workers, and pricing at airport canteens — matters that AAP leaders described as “soft PR” issues, while accusing him of avoiding politically controversial topics.
He is the second Rajya Sabha MP from the party after Swati Maliwal to face internal disputes with the leadership in recent times.
