Does the recent expose of Aam Aadmi Party truly show it in poor light? Can someone provide a point by point rebuttal to the supposed allegations on each party member/candidate covered in the sting operation?

I would like to answer your question by answering each so called 'exposes' one by one. Kumar Vishwas: He took cash of Rs10,000/- and gave a receipt. This cash transaction was done for a performance. There is nothing illegal here. Shazia Ilmi: She kept refusing to demonstrate without any legal documents even though the reporter was pesteing her. The reporter offered 10(units) in cheque and 15(units) of cash to her. This (unit) was assumed to be of thousands, however the media has converted that (unit) to Lakhs. Shazia also said that for 15 (units) of cash, receipt would be coming from the AAP head office. Looks like her only offense is that she didn't keep on repeating this and said this can be adjusted in the volunteer's salary. Again, legally, any donation to any political party of <=20,000 is OKAY, but then Shazia has earlier promised of receipt anyways. Rest of them: All of them said that they would love to help in the property dispute however, given the constraints of the election, they cannot do it right now. Any sane person would have said the same. No one even said a word about accepting cash donations. Arvind's SMS: The person who wanted to be the AAP candidate but couldn't get it was obviously upset and he himself showed the SMS which he sent to accusing him and asking him how much money did he take to sell the seat. That was only one of the SMSes that he showed and no body knows which other SMSes did he send. The SMS of AK (let us assume that for the sake of argument as his number does have those last 4 digits), said "Rs 2 Crores" and knowing AK, this SMS was plain sarcastic to shut the pestering of that lost candidate nominee. The image below however, raises one more question. That SMS has no value as no body knows to which SMS was it replied to as well. What if the SMS question was "How much money was raised this week by AAP" ? This 'expose' was shown in India News channel, which is owned by the Father of the Killer of Jessica Lal. Rest, the voter is intelligent.

The following section compares the allegations made by the voice-over and the actual incidents in the raw footage: 1. Shazia Ilmi (R.K.Puram) Allegation: Shazia Ilmi agrees to attend a demonstration against a company because she receives large cash donations. She agrees to accept these donations without any receipt. What actually Happens: When the reporter approaches Shazia, she refuses to help without any documentary evidence. Shazia is clearly in a hurry to leave. When she stands up to leave a crucial piece of the footage has been edited out. Shazia says, “We will only do it if we have concrete evidence. I have been a TV journalist for so many years. Hum jhoot nahin bolenge. We will not lie.She ends the conversation and is ready to leave when she is asked about donating to the Party. She says that donations can be made in cheque or cash and a receipt will be provided. When the reporter says she does not want a receipt, Shazia says cash be used to pay volunteer salaries (the word seedha is not used as claimed by the sting transcript) and the cash can shown in that [...volunteer stipend] account’. Shazia says Rs.20,000 can be paid by cheque and the reporter replies that they will pay 10. There is no mention of lakhs as claimed by news channels. The reporter does not contradict Shazia when she mentions 25,000 and makes no reference to lakhs of rupees. Shazia tries to leave and reporter follows her. Shazia is seen saying haan, haan to evade the reporter. Finally when asked if Shazia would be willing to help if the reporter is unable to provide any evidence, she says it would be good if there was documentary evidence. 2. Manoj Kumar (Kondli) Allegation in the sting: He was ready to support the efforts for getting possession of property (which the reporter claims to have given advance for) in return for getting unaccounted for donations; that they would send his people to support the reporter to get access to his property. What actually Happens: Reporter presents his grievance and says that the cash advance he gave for a flat is stuck and needs help in getting possession of the flat. Candidate asks about flat’s location. Then even before any money is offered, candidate says that we are with you once we are elected; we will stand by you and help you. When support is first offered, candidate says that he cant go with reporter right now. To the repeated offers of support, the candidate does not respond. Candidate says the same thing before and after the offer, that once we are elected we will stand with you. He, too, is trying to walk out of the conversation. The shot is cut here in the sting CD. What the raw footage shows right after that (tape timing 14:59:59 onwards) is that after this the candidate clearly says, ‘Property possession can be gained honestly. I have earned my money with a lot of honesty. Everyone knows me in Phase 3. I will earn a little less money, but am happy in that. Even as a property dealer, I have earned far less than all other property dealers. He even suggests how to get the property formally registered. This is the person being called a rajnaitik gunda! 3. Dinesh Mohaniya (Sangam Vihar) Allegation: He was ready to help in getting possession of a property, where the reporters cash advance was stuck, as if ‘this was the reason he has entered politics What actually Happens: Reporter presents his grievance and says that the cash advance he gave for a flat is stuck and needs help in getting possession of the flat. Offers support, says we will give any kind of platform; candidate does not accept offer but says that they can’t help anyone before elections. Says that he is in politics for social work. Reporter says that ‘everyone want a Bhagat Singh, but no one wants one in their own homes’, to which Dinesh Mohaniya says ‘It is only crazy people like ourselves who are willing to take this risk.’ Reporter persists that his Mamaji’s property is stuck. Candidate asks him to keep a meeting where they can have a discussion. When again offered support the candidate says that you do as you feel is ok. The candidate is offered support for a third time and asked for help, he says that when elections are going on you have to ignore everything, and I can’t help you. Reporter appeals that they are not getting possession of their property, to which the candidate says that it’s my duty to help you since you have come to me, but I cant do anything as my hands are tied right now. 4. Irfanullah Khan (Okhla) Allegation: Irfanullah Khan and his associate Wasim agree to help the reporter to recover cash from a third party in exchange for support. What actually Happens: The context under which the allegations are made is completely missing. The raw footage shows that Irfanullah Khan is approached by an aggrieved Hindu, Yadav man who has been cheated by a Muslim property seller in a Muslim dominated area of Okhla. The man approaches Irfanullah for help. Irfan offers immediate support. Almost the entire conversation shows that Irfanullah  is trying to exact the details of the location of the property and asks how he can assist the man. In the meanwhile, the reporters constantly speaks of his affluent background. He also offers a car, manpower etc. in support for election campaigning. Almost each time Irfan tells him that the party is based on strong moral principles and does not need any grandiosity (shor-sharaba) in his campaign. The sequence of events in the original video is disturbed and most of its commentary is false. The allegations are not supported by anything said by the candidate. Irfan emerges on the other side of the close scrutiny as another Aaam Aadmi hero, who deserves all our respect and admiration; once again diametrically opposite to what the sting would like us to believe. 5. Mukesh Hooda (Rohtas Nagar) Allegation: In offer for bouncers for capturing booths, Mukesh agrees to get the the reporters phansa hua cash out after the election   What actually happens: in the CD footage: The reporter makes three trips to the Mukesh Hoodas office and each time it seems that the candidate has given him some time but doesn’t come to meet him. In the third visit he comes and sits in the office, where there is general conversation going on and the party volunteers are discussing whom they are going to send to polling booths. During this conversation the ‘reporter’ offers his help in booth managing, capturing, and maintaining’ and it seems the candidate almost misses his offer and is fiddling on his phone. When he makes an offer of bouncers,  the candidate looks up and gives him an amused look and ignores his offer. Reporter presents his grievance and says that the cash advance he have for a flat is stuck and needs help in getting possession of the flat. Candidate asks for papers and is not told nothing was done in writing. The candidate distractedly keeps saying theek hai, theek hai. Then after the supposed offer of help, the candidate continues to ignore the reporter for one hour. In the raw footage one sees general office activity, and the reporter keeps trying to follow the candidate. At one point in the raw footage , the reporter draws Hooda out of a conversation to complain that he has been waiting for a long time. To this Hooda ji responds with an oblivious haan clearly showing that he is lost to all the hard work put by the reporter.   The nods and the haan haan of Hooda is nothing more than the politeness extended by any polite host to a guest. 6. Bhavna Gaur (Palam) Allegation: The CD itself shows she didnt make any promises and was in a hurry, but claims that she agreed to help them. What actually Happens: Bhavna Gaur does not listen to the reporter’s story. We clearly see that the candidate has not listened to what the reporters says asks them not to disturb her. She is seen asking the reporter to get back to her in a few days; the body language and tone of speech clearly shows that she is evading them. Throughout the footage, she says that she is very busy. 7. Prakash (Deoli)   Allegation: Does not charge the candidate with dishonest behaviour, but highlights that candidates are puppets and real power is the party lies with senior leaders.   What actually Happens: The reporter claims to be a worker in the Hinduja National Power Corporation Ltd and shows interest in electricity provision in Delhi. He approaches the candidate on the pretext that since the Aam Aadmi Party carried out the bijli-paani aandolan (electricity and water campaign), the candidate should be able to help him in getting a government contract should the party come to power. The candidate responds by saying that if his company has the lowest rates, the contracts will be issued to them. He also says that he does not understand how government contracts are issues and suggests that the reporter to speak to party leaders. There are no allegations of corruption against the candidate even in the CD footage, but since the candidate refers the candidate to other party leaders, the reporter alleges that candidates do not have any power and act as mere dummies of the party. 8. Kumar Vishwas   Allegation: Kumar Vishwas accepts money in cash and no receipts are provided. Kumar also demands travel by Business Class and asks for a hotel suite.   What actually Happens: Reporter asks Kumar Vishwas and his personal assistant discuss the terms of engagement to speak at a Kavi Sammelan. Kumar notes that he will not attend the show unless he receives the entire payment for the show in advance. His personal assistant says that they allow for different forms of receipt, including a note in their formal letterhead. Kumar mentions that he can accept cash as well as check. This part of the footage is interpreted as Kumar accepting black money. However in the actual raw footage, this sentence is followed by a critical point  he says that cash or check, we will pay income tax on it. The personal assistant also notes that Kumar has always maintained clean accounts, even during a time when he hardly had any income. Kumar does ask for Business Class tickets and a hotel suite at any point in the footage. The reporter gives them cash, which the PA keeps in his pocket and the scene is cut. 9. Saurabh Bhardwaj (Greater Kailash) and Kapil Mishra (Karawal Nagar)   Allegation: The sting operators note that they did not come across a single “clean” candidate in the Aam Aadmi Party.   What actually Happens: The footage of two candidates in the raw footage - Saurabh Bhardwaj and Kapil Mishra is completely spot-free. They did not entertain any requests from the reporters. These candidates were not reported by the journalists. Source http://www.aamaadmiparty.org/Real-story-behind-the-sting or you can watch this video Every thing will be clear

For those who are making hype about the video :  Please do watch it and listen carefully to each statement of the  concerned MLAs. and keep the point in mind what else one could have  spoke off at that moment other than what they have said. Nothing  according to me is wrong, a video can be interpolated/dubbed- who other  than the dumbest creator of the same video do not know this creative  art. But at the same time, if we consider nothing under manipulation then also one could not be accused with these very fair statements.  Shajiya Ilmi's statements were:  1. Whenever there will be legal documents- we will do that.  2. Donations can be in any form.  3. you can give cash- we will give you receipt  4. you can pay to our volunteers.  5. everything will be accounted.  6. you can give cheque up to 20K also  7. everything will be done after Elections  8. It will be good if you bring legal documents.  With these statements, once said and being emphasized by the lady how could you blame her ? Nothing according to me is wrong.  9. Media Outdoor can take cheque directly  10. It will be  utilize it for media hoardings  11. money in cash could be used for the following :  People on stipend- office work- day-to-day funds, driving, for miscellaneous things  many expenditures- like tents and random expenditures, 4-5 cars, 10-15K running cost of the office; calling cost per day, etc..  What is wrong in it now ??  There was a person in the video, a reporter, he was making a story and  came to beg help from the following 'to be' MLAs, the story was like to  get back his property or the money (~15 lakhs) from an unknown person-  whom he even don't know and not even a single time he replied when being  asked "who is he?", by different persons. He claimed that property used  to be of his maternal uncle (mama) and he do not know much about it.  Manoj Kumar's statements were:  1. After one month we are with you. We will stand by you after elections only  2. Do you have any proof that your money is with held by that unknown person?  3. I will send somebody to investigate into this matter. At this time, I can't support.  Dinesh's statements :  1. Set up a meeting- we'll discuss.  2. and do what you think is right to do.  Irfan Ullah Khan's statements :  1. I will get to know the exact location  2. We just need moral support from you and we will help you [replied  when reporter     was offering him with money and other support]  3. we just fight simple election  4. First get to know who is that person-  and let us know if he do deny even after giving sometime from us...there are other means then.  mukesh hooda's statements :  1. We will tell you before if need people from you (when being  repetitively asked whether he want some human resource in helping your  campaign at the time of elections)  2. Any thing in written regarding that property/money matter?  3. can't take action  before 4 december..  4, What does he do to whom you have given the money ??? [reporter change the topic and starts flattering]  Bhavna Gaur's statement:  1. Do not disturb me right now..come after few days  Prakash's statement :  1. Better to talk to arvind to know what we know..we are dummies..  So what..till you are not elected in elections you are the players of  the game and not the winners- you at this time can consider yourself as  dummy-it's your greatness, and obviously we know how to create a hype  even for a single word that wasn't referring to the actual semantics. So  please be mum.  Kumar Vishwas's statement:  here when some were booking him for a show  1. cheque should be in name of kumar vishwas...  2. cash is acceptable - letter head or your format of letter- we don't have receipts as we don't own a shop  3. Dr. Vishwas says, even I dont know who is booking me- matters  related to showe and bookings  is in charge of his managers and team  since 6-7 years,  4 Luxury that I want is, I want to travel in Business class and want to stay in a 5 star hotel ans the same for my PA.  [bhaii, every other personality at this level do you think,in INDIA, even be compared to this ]?  Watch it keeping the same point in mind, in an era of technology a  video can be interpolated, manipulated and could be shown in a way a  director/creator wants to show.   PS: I am not claiming all MLAs in AAP are not corrupt- investigation should be done but shouldn't be by this cheap means.

Aam Aadmi Party has put up original unedited footage of all the 8 people involved in the so-called sting on their facebook page seeing which one can draw a conclusion on themselves. Here are some important points to note 1. The audio in the sting is of very poor quality whereas the original has much better audio and whatever each person is saying is clearly audible. It is quite clear that noise has been deliberately introduced into the video. Also, given today's technology, it is quite naive to assume that the original recording quality is so poor when conversation of two persons sitting across a table is recorded. Here are the links to the 8 unedited videos. 1. Kapil Mishra ( https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=663004007073178) 2. Manoj Kumar ( https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=663023043737941 ) 3. Dinesh Mohaniya ( https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=663069937066585 ) 4. Kumar Vishwas ( https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=663122917061287 ) 5. Shazia Ilmi ( https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=663168890390023 ) - must watch because she was the one who drew most flak. 6. Saurabh Bharadwaj ( https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=663405933699652 ) 7. Bhawna Gaur ( https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=663430597030519 ) 8. Irfanullah Khan ( https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=663470737026505 ) After this episode, my belief in AAP has only strengthened. At the same time, my trust in the Cong has gone down even further As an aside, the name of the org that did the sting reveals it all. 'Sarkar ki media' would have been very obvious, perhaps that is why they chose the name media sarkar :)

I would like to draw attention to the chain of events *) One fine morning the sting came. Media is all over it. *) AAP say that we will take action against those found guilty in 24 hours. *)They ask for the raw tapes, the editor refuses them. he gives the preposterous logic of how can I give the evidence to the accused. When in reality he should just let out the raw tape in public along with the abridged version. *)They say that they are not getting the tapes and thus can't come to a conclusion regarding the tapes : Media reports, aap give a clean chit to its own, when all they have said is that they cant conclude anything decisive from the available evidence. *) AAP goes to the election commission and ask it to intervene and check if any of election commission's regulations (from taking money and offering illegal help) have been violated. *)They offer to withdraw their candidates if found guilty (even if the EC doesn't has any power to force a withdrawal from a party). *) Next day the EC summons the media site to submit the raw tapes, then goes on to conclude that there is nothing wrong in AAP's conduct. And then AAP asks for the raw tape from the EC, which they get. *) And now the very candidate who were being hailed as Kale dhan k saudagar have actually had EXEMPLARY conduct in the Raw video, Something you wont ever expect of a politician in India. Few facts- In case of Kumar Vishwas, lines like.. 'aap cash do ya cheque do, tax to hame bharna hi hai' have been trimmed into 'aap cash do'. Shazia says to the girl that "Nahi yar, Main journalism mein 9 saal se hun, main jhooth nahi bolungi" It was cut. She then leaves but the girl follows her. In order to fob her off.. shazia says few disinterested "yes yes" statements which were used against her perfectly! Don't take my word for it, watch these for yourself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Fymq9hkznY(watch from 20 minute onwards please  )

My dear Arvind, Yogendra and Prashant, Each one of us has our special reasons to be on this journey with you. My reasons are three. Back in 1984, soon after I joined the government, I was posted to a rather poor region of Karnataka; Bellary district. There, as part of my training, I hung around with the Assistant Commissioner, an IAS officer like me, to learn what the job was all about. When Ramaseshan was in office, a stream of people came to meet him. Several of them were desperately poor and had travelled long distances to come to his office. Similarly, when he visited villages – and he was a conscientious and hard-working man – people would crowd around and give him scores of petitions. Nearly all of them were written by petition writers; those who presented them were illiterate. Ramasheshan would listen to each poor person carefully and answer that he would do something about their problems. Nodthini, Madthini, he would say. I will see; I will do something. Those were the first words I learnt in Kannada. For improving my Kannada, I spent hours reading through these petitions. People wanted to be given houses. Others complained that their pensions, a pitiful fifty rupees a month, had not reached them. Some spoke about their land being taken away and inadequate compensation being paid. Some said they were poor, that they had nothing in the world. Could the government help in some way? Ramasheshan tried to help as best as he could. He sent the petitions to the BDOs and Tahsildars who worked under him – there were no Panchayats in Karnataka those days – and followed up. Sometimes, he even went to villages personally to hand out cheques for land acquisition compensation. To eliminate the possibility of officials demanding bribes for their handing over, he said. Yet, there was plenty he could not do, for these endless streams of poor people who would come to his office. Once, I asked him what the future of India would be. Would the rest of our government service be devoted to receiving petitions from people and often pretending to help, when we could really do nothing? No, said Ramasheshan. We would need to work towards a system where nobody needed to come to a government office to receive anything. The government would deliver everything at their doorstep. Ramasheshan’s observation became a credo for the rest of my life. Yet, I did not succeed in making it needless for people to visit government offices, try as I did. Over the nearly three decades since, the stream of petitioners with their requests to get things that ought to be done easily, did not stop. Years later, I was with a member of the Planning Commission, Mr. B.N. Yugandhar, putting final touches to a handbook on decentralised planning, that aimed to guide a process of grassroots level planning. He was a garrulous man, talkative, opinionated and funny. I did not agree with everything that he said, but he, unlike many others, did not mind my telling him so. I liked him a great deal. He rambled that day, and spoke of a recent journey; a night ride on an ordinary passenger bus from Vishakhapatnam to Hyderabad. He spoke about how the nights stops were alive with people; many migrating families used the cheap, ordinary passenger night buses to get from place to place. Somewhere that night, the bus stopped for a family of four. The husband and wife were young but were prematurely aged, and stunted. They had a babe in arms, and a young daughter – she might have been eight years old but looked more like she was five. Mr. Yugandhar made space for this family and struck up a conversation with them. They spoke of drought, and of losing everything they had on their desperate attempts at agriculture. They spoke about debts and finally, how they had to sell off their land to repay these. They said that all they had was the belongings that were carefully tied into two bundles. Where were they going? Yugandhar asked. To Hyderabad, they replied. They knew the name of a bus stand, which also doubled as a marshalling point for labour gangs that migrated from their village. They would get down there and wait. If they found someone from their village, they would get work. If they were lucky, the man would go and work, his wife and children would wait at the bus stand till he returned with money for the evening meal. What about the food during the day? The family fell silent. ‘I will never forget the look in that girl’s eyes,’ said Yugandhar to me. ‘She was uncomprehending of the situation, yet looked directly at me, as if she were asking what it was that I could do, for her’. We fell silent. Then Mr. Yugandhar began to weep, silently, at first, and then his body was racked by huge sobs. Here was a former Principal Secretary to a Prime Minister, a former Secretary for Rural Development, a Planning Commission member, and he wept out of frustration, that after four decades of working with the government, he was unable to do anything for a little, poor, migrant girl. My third reason is Saraswati. You do not know her, but she is a social worker in an urban village close to where I live, in Bengaluru. A few AAP volunteers, who are doing great work in promoting awareness about the Right to Education and have been helping parents go through the process of registering their children for admission in private schools under it, befriended her during their visits to the village. ‘Why don’t you join our party?’ they asked her. Saraswati laughed at first, but then, soon, she has begun to think about it seriously. She works hard for her community; so far other political parties have only seen her as a vote catcher. The AAP offers her a political future, the ability to chart her own destiny and that of her community. I am with the AAP, because I think that a future where nobody needs to come to a government office and appeal to the kindness of senior officers, can be possible only with the AAP. I think that only the AAP can prevent the desperate migration of farmers who have lost all their sources of livelihood. I think that only the AAP can offer countless lakhs of daily heroes, like Saraswati, a political future and the dignity that comes with being master of one’s own destiny. And you people are squandering that opportunity away. I do not care who started it. I do not care who said what, when and what for. The idea of AAP is bigger than the three of you. It is bigger than all of us put together. So, patch up. Sit down and talk. Go have a beer, or Karela juice, or whatever else is the liquid that naturopaths permit, but do not get up from where you sit, without ironing out all your problems. Yesterday, a few of my friends from the party called me to ask if I were willing to join a silent demonstration, where we would impersonate the three of you, and hold up placards that say, ‘we are united’, and suchlike. You could be Prashant Bhushan, they told me. You are bald, are a lawyer and you surely have a black coat. We could have spent our Sunday productively as party volunteers, conducting a solid waste management campaign in our area or helping children learn their lessons. Instead, my friends are so desperate that they are now doing impersonations of you folks; that is the level to which we have gone. I would have joined them but for a prior engagement. Never mind, I will certainly exploit my new found talent of doing a Prashant Bhushan, if that could get the three of you together. (I can do a reasonable Rajanikanth too – being as bald as he is – but that is besides the point). So pals, jokes apart, get back together, pronto. And help me cure my insomnia; I have not slept a wink since you guys have started fighting.

Yes. Indians are highly opinionated people. More than 80% people just read the headlines in newspaper n think themselves capable of commenting on everything n that too with so much confidence that it seems they have wrote that news. Same is the case here. People only know that AAP in into corruption. Only a few would have bothered to read and conclude further. Truth won't be out before elections and this will have an impact on mind of voters.

I am not a law expert but i have hosted about 15-20 National Level Kavis including names like kumar vishwas, munawwar rana, wasim barelvi, rahat indori, shlesh gautam, ramesh muskan, surendra sharma and many more. The normal procedure which is followed for each one of these is that, TDS (tax deducted at source) is deducted from their fees and then the money is given, It doesnt matter whether its cash or cheque because the tax has already been deducted and he is not liable for income tax on it. In return, they generally give a thank you note on their letter head with the mentioned amount, signature, date and stamp, which is considered as a receipt. And seriously people, A person tells me this is the money, u need to perform here, that is what should matter to us. its not the artist's duty to check the source of money, That is the duty of IRS and IT Dept. Kumar Vishwas performs 150 Shows a year, he cant go about finding source of each deal. Thanks.

This should suffice Press conference after obtaining raw footage from EC