NEW DELHI: Raghav Chadha on Saturday hit back at the Aam Aadmi Party after being removed as the party’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha and replaced by Ashok Kumar Mittal, rejecting the allegations cited against him. Terming the move part of a “scripted campaign”, Chadha alleged that it was a “coordinated attack” aimed at targeting him. In a video shared on X, he said he would expose “every lie” and responded to each charge levelled by the party, ending with a popular line from Dhurandhar: “Ghayal hoon isliye ghatak hoon” (I may be wounded, but I am also stronger because of it). “The Aam Aadmi Party made three allegations and said that because of these, Raghav Chadha should not be allowed to speak in Parliament. I would like to address all three,” he said.”The first allegation is that when the opposition walks out of Parliament, I remain seated and do not join them. This is completely false — a blatant lie. I challenge anyone to show even a single instance where the opposition walked out and I did not join them. Parliament has CCTV cameras everywhere — bring out the footage and the truth will be clear,” he added.He further rejected the claim that he refused to sign the impeachment motion against the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. “The second allegation is that I refused to sign the impeachment motion against the Chief Election Commissioner. This too is false. No leader from the party ever asked me — formally or informally — to sign it. In fact, several Rajya Sabha MPs from the party themselves did not sign the motion. So why is the blame being placed solely on me? Moreover, such a motion requires 50 signatures in the Rajya Sabha, and that number could easily have been met. So why the noise?” he said.Tearing into the third allegations of raising “trivial issues” in the Parliament, Chadha said: “The third allegation is that I am afraid and therefore raise trivial issues. Let me clarify — I did not go to Parliament to shout, create chaos, or break microphones. I went there to raise public issues. I have spoken on GST, income tax, Punjab’s water, Delhi’s air pollution, the condition of government schools, strengthening public healthcare, and problems faced by passengers in Indian Railways. I have even raised issues like menstrual health, which people often hesitate to discuss, along with unemployment and inflation. You can check my four-year parliamentary record — I went there to create impact, not disruption.”AAP on Thursday informed the Rajya Sabha secretariat that Ashok Kumar Mittal has been appointed as its new deputy leader in the Upper House, replacing Raghav Chadha.Chadha, who has been a Member of Parliament since April 2022, has frequently drawn attention for raising key issues in Parliament. Recently, he flagged concerns over the practice of “sarpanch pati” or “panchayat pati,” where women elected to reserved local body seats often remain nominal representatives while actual authority is exercised by male family members.He urged the government to take steps to ensure that women elected to Panchayati Raj institutions are able to exercise real power, in line with the intent of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment.
