AAP says Mann may be arrested, he calls probe a 'stunt'

AAP MP Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday dubbed a Lok Sabha panel formed to probe his video of Parliament a "stunt" even as his party alleged that the government was plotting to arrest him.

"The issue is being blown out of proportion and politicized. I have never seen the Akali Dal, the BJP and the Congress joining forces on any other issue. But they are on the same platform against me," Mann told the media here.

He said the nine-member committee formed by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to study the security implications of his video was "a political stunt".

He reiterated that his intention behind making a video of Parliament procedures was meant to educate the people and was not meant to breach any security.

Nevertheless, he said he gave an unconditional apology when leaders of other parties attacked him for allegedly putting Parliament in danger by putting the video on his Facebook account.

"But now I am being compared with Afzal Guru and Richard Headley as if I am an extremist and as if I have endangered the entire Parliament," the Aam Aadmi Party leader said.

Mann said he had since written to Mahajan asking her to widen the probe panel's reference to include the way Pakistani intelligence agency ISI was invited to the IAF base at Pathankot to probe the January terror attack.

"The PM (Narendra Modi) invited the ISI. He should also be brought under its purview. After all it was the ISI which had attacked Parliament... The Prime Minister should also be suspended from the Lok Sabha."

He reiterated that he did not shoot anything which was not already in the public domain.

AAP leader Sanjay Singh took a more strident line, saying the government was plotting to have Mann arrested.

"At today's meeting of the Lok Sabha committee, the Delhi Police Commissioner was called. I apprehend that the Modi government wants Mann arrested.

"This is a well thought out plan," Sanjay Singh said, adding that daily the government registered a case against an AAP legislator or leader in the national capital in particular.

AAP leader Ashutosh urged the Lok Sabha Speaker to be neutral.

"If the Speaker works under someone's pressure or is biased, it will be a danger for democracy."

The nine-member Lok Sabha panel is headed by BJP's Kirit Somaiya. It will probe the security implications of Mann's audio-visual recording of his journey to Parliament House which he live-streamed on Facebook on July 21.

Mann is set to appear before the panel on July 28.

"They say 'Bhagwant Mann ko barkhast karo' (Sack Bhagwant Mann). I say 'Bhagwant Mann ko barkhast mat karo, usey bardasht karo' (I say don't sack Bhagwant Mann, tolerate him)," the MP said.

--IANS

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