Employees Must Serve Notice Period Even in Toxic Workplaces
New Delhi: AAP’s Delhi unit chief Saurabh Bharadwaj on Monday hit back at Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha for his “toxic workplace” analogy and said that even if an employee decides to leave the company, he serves his notice period rather than conspiring to damage the image of the organisation.
Bharadwaj’s remarks came after Chadha, who announced her Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) decision to merge with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) along with six other Rajya Sabha MPs, defended her exit by likening the Arivind Kejriwal-led party to a toxic workplace.
In his video statement, Chadha said that if the atmosphere in the workplace becomes toxic, employees are stopped from working, their hard work is suppressed and silenced, then the right decision is to leave the place.
Responding to this, Bharadwaj said that while people can leave companies, political parties are based on ideology and not just workplace convenience.
“Changing a company has nothing to do with ideology. But if a person accepts the ideology of a political party, only then will he join it,” he said in a video published on X.
Bharadwaj added that even an employee who decides to leave a company follows the rules of professional ethics.
“If an employee leaves a company, they have a three-month notice period so that what they have learned from that company can be properly transferred. They will not conspire to tarnish the image of the company,” he said.
Bharadwaj alleged that Chadha started planning to join the BJP instead of leaving the party respectfully and started acting in a way that would harm the AAP.
“When the pressure from ED increased, you planned to join the BJP and started conspiring with it,” he alleged.
The AAP leader also claimed that many of the issues raised by Chadha in Parliament, including affordable food at airports, mobile charging concerns, paternity leave and gig workers’ rights, were already in line with the BJP’s political agenda.
Chadha, Sandeep Pathak and Ashok Mittal announced on April 24 that they will join the BJP along with four other AAP MPs. Others who left AAP were Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta, Swati Maliwal and Vikramjit Sahney.
On Monday, the Rajya Sabha chairman approved the merger of seven MPs with the BJP, taking the saffron party’s tally in the Upper House of Parliament to 113. AAP is now down to three members in the Rajya Sabha.
