A day after being replaced as the AAP’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, Raghav Chadha put out a montage of videos of his interventions in Parliament and claimed that his party was trying to shut him up.
AAP leaders rubbished his outburst and asked him to question the BJP in Parliament rather than debate the price of samosas at airports.
Chadha, a 37-year-old accountant and co-founder of the AAP in 2012, was once the party’s youth icon and emissary to other parties. He has been aloof from his party for more than a year and remained silent over the liquor policy case against AAP chief and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, which was quashed last month.
Chadha said in a video on X: "Whenever I get a chance to speak in Parliament, I raise public issues. And perhaps I raise topics that are not usually raised in Parliament. But is raising public issues a crime?... AAP has told the Rajya Sabha secretariat that Raghav Chadha should be stopped from speaking in Parliament.”
The MP from Punjab added: “Do not consider my silence as my defeat. I am that river which becomes a flood when the time comes.”
AAP’s Rajya Sabha leader Sanjay Singh hit back: “It is unfortunate to say that on several issues concerning the country, when a proposal comes against the CEC (chief election commissioner), Raghav Chadha does not sign it. In Bengal, people’s voting rights are being taken away. In Delhi, we saw how the Election Commission was misused. When it comes to Punjab’s issues, he remains silent and says nothing. He does not raise his voice against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”
Party spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj said: “A small party gets very limited time in Parliament. If someone is raising issues like samosas, it is far more important to raise the big issues of the country.”
Chadha's interventions in Parliament on men running panchayats in the name of their elected wives, the lack of affordable eateries in airports, and losses suffered by retail investors because of the Iran war have received wide traction on social media. He also took up the cause of delivery agents.
An AAP source told The Telegraph: "The party did not promote these viral videos of his. He hired an agency for this. Also, he spoke on issues he wished to raise and not issues that the parliamentary party had decided upon."
Delhi Opposition leader and former chief minister Atishi said: “While we were fighting daily on the streets, Raghav Chadha was in London (during the Lok Sabha polls). He told us that he was there for an eye operation. At that time, the media questioned us repeatedly and we defended him, saying he was not afraid. But today, even I wonder, when Arvind Kejriwal was arrested, was he afraid of the BJP? Was he afraid of Narendra Modi? Did he run away to London out of fear?"
Chadha has two more years left in the Rajya Sabha.