AAP patron heaps praise on Kiran Bedi

In an embarrassment for former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP, senior Supreme Court lawyer and one of the party’s founding fathers, Shanti Bhushan, publicly praised former Team Anna member Kiran Bedi.

Bedi is the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate for the February 7 Delhi Assembly polls.

Bhushan, 89, said here on Thursday that Bedi is “as good a candidate as Kejriwal”, as both are anti-corruption crusaders. He further said the BJP’s move to name her the party’s CM candidate is a “masterstroke”.

Heaping more praise on Bedi, Bhushan said: “She has excellent credentials and her integrity is well known. She was a police officer with the highest integrity, an IIT scholar from Delhi and she also won the Magsaysay award. She is in no way inferior to Arvind Kejriwal.” However, he added that he is against the BJP because of its communal agenda.

Disagreeing with his father, Prashant Bhushan, a lawyer and AAP leader, said: “He's a senior member, he can express his opinion, but I do not agree with Shantiji's assessment…She (Bedi) was against joining politics.”

Incidentally, Bhushan Junior has stayed away from the AAP’s campaign so far, saying he is busy in court cases. While the AAP underplayed Bhushan Senior’s comments, Kejriwal told reporters that he would speak to him. “He will understand what we want to say. But I have not heard what he has said, so I cannot comment,” he added.

Refuting Shanti Bhushan’s charge of lack of “internal democracy” in the AAP, Kejriwal said: “We have a Lokpal within the party that recently decided to replace two candidates. His own comments go on to prove that the party has democracy.”

This is not the first time that Bhushan Senior has gone public in airing his differences with the AAP. Last year, after the party fared poorly in the elections, he raised questions on Kejriwal’s organisational capabilities.

Bedi, when asked to comment on Bhushan Senior’s views, thanked him but declined to say anything more. Meanwhile, the Coordination Committee of Bar Associations of Delhi burnt an effigy of Bedi, questioning the “myth” of her administrative skills. They also flayed her order for lathi-charge on Tis Hazari lawyers when she was DCP, North.