‘Why seek forensic report?’: AAP fears self-goal as Bhagwant Mann video row blows up

An attempt by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to counter a controversy surrounding a purported video of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has turned into an embarrassment for the party, with several party leaders privately describing the forensic report episode as an avoidable self-goal.

Police in Gurgaon announced Tuesday the arrest of two men on a complaint by a forensic expert that two senior Punjab Police officers paid him Rs 10 lakh to “tailor” a report certifying the video clip allegedly featuring Mann as “fake”.

Questions are being raised within the AAP over the strategy adopted by Mann’s advisers and sections of the party leadership. “Where was the need for this forensic report, especially from a laboratory in a state ruled by the BJP? The party had already taken a stand that the video was fake. If there was any need, they could have sought a report from the state’s own laboratory,” an AAP MLA said.

While police are silent on the authenticity of the video itself, AAP insiders fear that the row has shifted attention from the contents of its footage to the manner in which the ruling party has sought to rebut allegations surrounding it.

Mann has been under fire from the Akal Takht, the highest temporal body of Sikhs, which has alleged that the person in the video is the CM, and declared him “Guru dokhi” (anti-Guru) and “panth virodhi” (anti-panth) on the basis of what it purportedly shows. The CM and AAP have denied this, calling the footage manipulated.

The AAP MLA who questions the move to seek a forensic report also pointed out that the issue didn’t seem to have any traction, and did not come up during the many recent public engagements of Mann.

Another senior AAP leader said the issue had been debated internally, and “it was advised that we should not get into procuring any forensic report”. “However, several party leaders advised there should be one. Now this has boomeranged instead of helping,” the leader said.

There was also a debate within the party over whether a technical rebuttal was needed, or a categorical denial was sufficient. “We are now in another embarrassing situation. We do not know how to get out of this,” another AAP leader said, adding that there would be a fallout. “Some heads may roll in the coming days.”

The AAP had claimed that forensic reports of the video obtained by it concluded that the individual in it was not Mann, on the basis of 1,191 reference points, including facial recognition, frame extraction, height assessment, gait analysis, and examination of body posture.

With the BJP snapping at its heels and Assembly elections drawing closer, the AAP can ill-afford another confrontation with the Akal Takht. Ties between Mann and Akal Takht have been strained since the introduction of a strict anti-sacrilege law by his government recently, which was seen by the latter as imposition on its territory.

The Akal Takht has summoned Mann and the AAP on June 29 for an explanation regarding the video, and the party is yet to clarify its plans regarding it.

Former AAP spokesperson Iqbal Singh, who quit the party two years ago, also questioned the logic of seeking a forensic report. “They had dismissed the video as AI-generated and most people had accepted that explanation… They could have just sat quietly.”

The AAP may have acted out of apprehension about the reaction of Sikh voters, Iqbal added. “So they tried to play smart, but got caught… A hundred lies are now being told to cover one lie. The (Akal Takht) jathedar only said regarding the video that it was not AI-generated. It was Mann who went ahead and said it wasn’t him in the video.”

Iqbal alleged that the controversy may even be AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal’s way of “offloading” Mann. “He got him to take on the Akal Takht. This was wrong advice… It shows that they have gone bankrupt in terms of ideas… Those who genuinely understood politics have been shown the door by the party,” he said.

Incidentally, even as the controversy brews, Kejriwal is arriving in Punjab to participate in a series of Hindu religious events being organised by the state government.

Publicly, the AAP has rallied behind the CM. Cabinet minister Baljit Kaur slammed “attempts to malign the image” of Mann. “The video is fake. All this is being done to character assassinate the CM,” she told the media.

Questioning the Haryana Police actions, AAP Punjab president Aman Arora said Tuesday: “Haryana is governed by the BJP, the Haryana Police is under its control… They can do whatever they want, initiate any inquiry.” He added that had the intention of the Mann government been to secure a favourable report, it would have relied on laboratories within Punjab.

Addressing the media on Wednesday, Mann’s aide Baltej Pannu said Punjab DGP Gaurav Yadav was conducting an investigation into the whole episode, including the authenticity of the video, the identity of the “actors” in it, and of the persons behind its circulation.