Sandeep Kumar is in deep sh*t. He has been sacked from his position as Delhi’s Minister of Women and Child Development and is being hauled over the coals by AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal himself. Kejriwal publicly humiliated him on Twitter with a summary dismissal, piling on to the ongoing humiliation of having the tapes of his most private moments leaked to the public.
A top source within the AAP readily admitted to The Quint that the tape is from many years ago:
It is an old CD. It is from his student days.Top AAP Source
Well, them’s the breaks, you might say. Kumar should have thought of this before... what? Honouring our Indian heritage by engaging in some Kama Sutra-esque moves with women many years ago? I mean, imagine... having sex in college. What a monster.
Prominent voices within the party have besmirched his character with apparent relish; Manish Sisodia has leapt astride his high horse and expounded on the AAP’s “zero tolerance for corruption and crime” policy.
What crime?! What corruption?!
Many have laid into Kumar, saying it is shameful that a Minister for Women and Child Development was caught having sex on tape. Yes, how dare a man in charge of a portfolio to do with Women and *gasp* Children even THINK about engaging in humanity’s most natural activity next to eating and sleeping?
Pro-tip for all aspiring AAP members: Before you think of joining the party, make sure you have been practising a life of total celibacy... you know, just in case someone taped you, and then leaks it.
The top AAP source shed some light on the rationale behind Kumar’s dismissal:
When you enter public life, you do so voluntarily and willingly, so everything has to be above board. If it is your privacy, then you should know how to guard it. [...] The bottom line is: in public life, privacy is no defence. If we had made this defence, who would have bought it? Who would have listened/heard us if we said it was not from his minister days?Top AAP Source
So it’s clear that the AAP, in being the first to lay the boot into Kumar, is hoping to pre-empt the moralistic outrage of its middle class voters – with a large dollop of victim-blaming thrown in for good measure.
In much the same way that a mother cat may cannibalise the runts in her litter to cut her losses and benefit from the extra meat, Kejriwal has chowed down on Kumar’s political career in the hope that he can mitigate a looming PR disaster and solidify his credentials as an impartial, principled leader.
After all, if you beat them to it, what is left for your opponents to attack?
But the embattled Sandeep Kumar is doing himself no favours by claiming it is not him in the CD, and accusing his party of discriminating against him because he is a dalit.
Mr Kumar, own up and stand your ground sir, you have done nothing wrong in this instance.
The AAP is essentially slut-shaming a minister in fear of the public’s wrath – those are not principles, Mr Kejriwal... it is cowardice.
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