Government planned to crush my agitation: Hazare

Anti-graft crusader Anna Hazare on Tuesday said the Union government had planned to crush his agitation, by putting him under house arrest in his village Ralegan Siddhi, right after he came out of Tihar Jail.

Mr. Hazare said the Centre had also kept an Air Force plane ready at the Delhi airport.

Addressing visitors in Ralegan Siddhi, Mr. Hazare said: “The idea was to airlift me from Delhi airport, where an Air Force flight was waiting, to Pune. From Pune, they would send me to Ralegan Siddhi, where I would not have been allowed to go anywhere.” He called the government's plan a part of a “betrayal.”

The Delhi Police had arrested Mr. Hazare on August 16, hours before his slated hunger strike for the Jan Lokpal Bill at the JP Park. Within hours, the police withdrew the charges against Mr. Hazare, who however refused to leave the jail premises demanding unconditional permission to fast on the Ramlila grounds.

The activist earlier alleged that his arrest was planned at the Home Ministry level, even as the government denied the charge.

Commenting on Parliament members allegedly taking money for vote during the confidence motion, Mr. Hazare said they should be “hanged.” “If anyone in the Assembly or Parliament takes money for asking questions or casting votes, there should be stringent punishment for them. In fact I feel they should be hanged.”

Mr. Hazare refuted charges levelled by Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh that Mr. Hazare was a “mask for the RSS.”

Mr. Singh said in Jammu that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party used Baba Ramdev and Anna Hazare as their mask, to divert people's attention from the arrests of RSS activists in terrorism and corruption cases.

Reacting to Mr. Singh's comments, Mr. Hazare said, “Those who are making allegations should first produce evidence.”