Alka Lamba had on Friday alleged that the party had asked for her resignation.
Highlights
- Alka Lamba had alleged she disagreed with AAP's stand on Rajiv Gandhi
- She walked out of Assembly before the resolution was passed, she claimed
- Manish Sisodia clarified nobody was asked to resign, including Alak Lamba
Amid a huge row over the passage of a resolution in the Delhi Assembly seeking justice for the victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots that had an alleged amendment demanding that former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi be stripped of his Bharat Ratna, Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia clarified that there was no mention of Rajiv Gandhi in the original resolution and the addition was hand written by a legislator.
He also rubbished claims that Chandni Chowk legislator Alka Lamba has been asked to resign by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over her stand on the issue.
"We haven't asked anybody to resign and nobody is resigning," Mr Sisodia said during a press briefing today.
"I am not resigning," Ms Lamba said soon after.
The AAP claims the resolution, moved by legislator Tilak Nagar Jarnail Singh on Friday, asked for justice for the families and that the 1984 riots be declared as one of the worst genocides. An amendment seeking the revocation of former PM's Bharat Ratna was added to it by legislator Somnath Bharti, who passed on his copy of the resolution to Jarnail Singh.
Mr Sisodia said that Jarnail Singh read the whole thing out in the Assembly, but the original resolution, the copies of which were distributed among all the members, didn't have the "proposal".
"It was just a proposal by a member. Members are free to express their feelings in the Assembly. If they want an amendment passed, they approach the speaker who then accepts it and asks for a vote. There is a process involved and no amendment can be passed without a discussion or voting," the deputy chief minister, who wasn't present in the Assembly on Friday, said.
Somnath Bharti had already tweeted the same soon after the controversy had erupted. "I clarify that amendment I proposed was not put to vote as an amendment n hence there is no question of passing the same," Mr Bharti wrote on Twitter.
Only the resolution that was placed on the table was passed, asserted Delhi Assembly speaker Ram Niwas Goel.
Mr Goel accepted that Jarnail Singh spoke about the amendment and had even objected to it, but voting wasn't done. "We didn't ask for the Assembly's opinion on that amendment. The resolution that was passed has no mention of Rajiv Gandhi's Bharat Ratna," Mr Goel told NDTV.
On Ms Lamba intriguing claim that her refusal to be part of the move on Rajiv Gandhi's Bharat Ratna invited resignation calls from Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as well as the AAP, Mr Sisodia said they haven't asked anybody to resign and it was in fact the media that is "spreading such news".
"The party has asked for my resignation. I'm ready to resign but Rajiv Gandhi has sacrificed a lot for country and I didn't support the proposal of taking back his Bharat Ratna. I've been asked to resign because I stood against the decision of the party," news agency ANI had quoted Ms Lamba as saying.
The resolution comes amid speculation that AAP and Congress might join hands ahead of the 2019 national elections. AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, whose rivalry with the Congress is as bitter as the one with the BJP, recently attended a mega meeting called by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu.
This was the second time when the chiefs of their parties were seen on the same platform. Last month, Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal had attended a massive farmer protest in Delhi together. Both were part of the chain of leaders who linked their hands and held them up in a show of bonhomie.