The Punjab Congress has lashed out at Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over its decision to keep its donor list a 'top secret', saying the move endorsed the widespread allegations of corruption facing the party, and smacked of total lack of honesty and transparency on the part of its leadership.For a party projecting corruption as an election plank, and claiming to be working wholeheartedly against corruption, AAP’s controversial decision highlights the complete moral bankruptcy in its leadership, including party supremo Kejriwal, said the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) in a statement issued here on Thursday.After taking such a high moral ground on the issue of financial transparency, it is shocking that Kejriwal could even contemplate putting the party’s accounts under the shadow of such secrecy, PPCC leaders Kewal Singh Dhillon, Vijay Inder Singla and Harchand Kaur.
The move, said the PPCC leaders, had thoroughly exposed the lack of morality in the AAP leadership and more than proved the charges made by party workers and volunteers of large-scale corruption among the top leadership.Interestingly, just a few days ago Kejriwal, had in a video message, sought time and donations from party supporters for Punjab and Goa polls, saying AAP does not accept donations from big persons as that would force it to “do their illegitimate works also.” The PPCC leaders asked if the decision not to release the names of the large donors meant that Kejriwal had retracted from his earlier stand and was now willing to take up “illegitimate works” of big people.
Citing reports of more and more AAP leaders and volunteers quitting the party alleging bribe demands by the top leadership, the PPCC leaders said that Kejriwal’s failure to address the allegations indicated that he himself was patronizing corruption From corruption in ticket distribution to interference by outsiders, charges against AAP by party leaders and supporters have been widespread, even leading to the resignation of several of them. Among the latest to quit the party on the same grounds are AAP’s women’s wing joint secretary Surinder Kaur and pensioner’s wing general secretary Nazar Singh, who expressed shock at the way the party was functioning.The PPCC leaders asserted that the internal crisis in AAP, rooted in the corruption and other scandals gripping the party leadership, would prove detrimental to its electoral agenda and the party would be completedly wiped out from the state in the forthcoming Assembly elections.