AAP sacks ex-minister Kumar, distances itself from Ashutosh

NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party suspended legislator Sandeep Kumar from the outfit on Saturday, three days after chief minister dropped him from his cabinet over an “objectionable video”.

The action was taken after the political affairs committee’s decision to suspend Kumar pending inquiry.

“The party is taking action. Whatever Sandeep Kumar has done is wrong. He has been suspended from the primary membership. The matter has been sent to the disciplinary committee and whatever recommendations will come from it, the party will follow it. But, the PAC has suspended him from primary membership after discussing the issue this (Saturday) morning,” said deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said.

Sources said the decision to sack Kumar was taken before Kejriwal left for the Vatican City on Friday to attend the canonisation of Mother Teresa.

Meanwhile, the senior leadership distanced itself from party spokesperson Ashutosh’s views in defence of Kumar that the video showed “two adults with their consent indulging in sex” and even public figures are “entitled to private space”.

A day after Sandeep was sacked Ashutosh wrote a blog titled ‘The Sex Was Consensual, Private Act. Why AAP Punished Its Man’.

The deputy CM described the post as “his (Ashutosh’s) personal views”. “In AAP, any charges on character, corruption and crime won’t be tolerated. If there are such charges against me, same action will be taken as has been taken against Kumar,” he added.

In a related incident, Delhi water minister Kapil Mishra in a blog post without naming Ashutosh said on Saturday, “While it was easy to connect anything directly with certain incidents of Gandhi’s life, but it was not correct”.

AAP leader Ashutosh had written in his blog, “Indian history is full of examples of our leaders and heroes who had lived with their desires beyond social boundaries .”

“The video clearly establishes that both individuals (minister and the woman) knew each other and consented to sex in a private space away from the public glare. The question then is that if two consenting adults are physically involved with each other, is it a crime,” Ashutosh has asked in his blog defending Kumar.