AAP Is Same As All Other Political Parties
The India Commentary view
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By Our Editorial Team
First publised on 2023-05-09 11:04:52
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The India Commentary view
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The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), born out of the India Against Corruption movement and always taking the high moral ground of being different from the other political parties in India, has repeatedly shown that it has been a fast learner and regrettably, has learnt all the bad practices of the existing political parties, thereby losing its supposed USP of being different. The latest incident of arresting three staffers of Times Now Navbharat TV channel in Punjab on allegedly trumped up charges in Punjab - a state where the party is in power - shows that politicians, cutting across party lines, derive a perverse pleasure in trying to muzzle the press to prove their might.
The arrest took place close on the heels of the news report titled Operation Sheeshmahal that Times Now Navbharat had aired which showed how the Delhi administration had spent lavishly and disproportionately to refurbish the official residence of Delhi chief minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal. The journalists were first not allowed to enter the grounds where an AAP event, which they had gone to cover, was taking place (and where Kejriwal was present). Then when they were returning from the event and their vehicle was involved in a minor mishap, they were arrested under the SC/ST Act for hurling casteist slurs at those involved. The journalists have denied the allegations.
It is no one's case that journalist be given any special privileges other than allowed by law in their course of duty. If they are wrong and if they actually exceeded their limits in abusing people, the law will take its own course. But in India, a disturbing pattern is being seen when journalists from an organization are targeted immediately after some unpalatable (to the ruling dispensation) report is published. This proves that the idea is to threaten and intimidate journalists and make them 'fall in line'. All government do this. This must stop.
