'AAP bhi aamantrit': Kumar Vishwas' Delhi Assembly Ram Katha invite stings party

Kumar Vishwas' invitation for his Delhi Assembly Ram Katha has drawn notice over a poster aimed at AAP. The wording and its swift removal have sharpened focus on his fraught history with the party.

In Short

• May 6 programme will be the first Ram Katha inside Delhi Assembly
• A poster near AAP's office was removed within hours, prompting speculation
• No official response has come from Arvind Kejriwal or the party

Poet and former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Kumar Vishwas has once again stirred Delhi’s political pot, this time with an invitation.

Billboards promoting his upcoming musical Ram Katha, ‘Apne Apne Ram’, scheduled for May 6 at the Delhi Assembly, have cropped up all over the city. The event marks the first time a Ram Katha will be staged inside the legislature.

But a poster that appeared outside the office of the Aam Aadmi Party have set tongues wagging. The line that did it: "AAP bhi aamantrit (You are also invited)."

It wasn’t lost on anybody that Kumar Vishwas’ invitation, a play on the Aam Aadmi Party’s acronym, was a sarcastic jab at his former party.

The poster was short-lived. It was torn off and unceremoniously dumped on the street, fuelling speculation and social media chatter over whether the party felt targeted.

There has been no official response from AAP or its chief Arvind Kejriwal.

Political observers say the phrasing was unlikely to be accidental. “It reads as more than a cultural invite. It’s a subtle dig,” said one analyst, pointing to Vishwas’ long-running public differences with the party leadership.

Vishwas, once among AAP’s most visible founding faces and a close aide of Kejriwal, quit the party in 2018 over differences with the party leadership. He has been an outspoken critic of the party and its policies ever since. That fraught history has added layers to what might otherwise have been a routine cultural promotion.

Delhi Assembly officials described the May 6 event as a “musical Ram Katha” presenting the life and ideals of Lord Ram in a contemporary format. Around 2,500 guests are expected, including Union ministers, the Lieutenant Governor Taranjit Singh Sandhu, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, as well as MPs and MLAs across party lines.

Supporters of Kumar Vishwas told India Today’s sister channel Aaj Tak that the controversy over the poster is overblown. They framed the event as an effort to bring the Ramayana to a wider audience in an accessible, modern style.

But the political undertones are hard to ignore. The question remains: Will AAP leaders accept the invitation, or keep their distance?

- Ends