Team Anna has admitted that it received the support of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in its movement for a strong Lokpal bill, albeit in a tactical fashion.
“The presence of supporters from RSS could not be ruled out, but they joined the movement as Indians who wanted to support the cause for a strong anti-corruption bill,” said core committee member of Team Anna, Kiran Bedi.
Bedi, along with Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan were addressing a press conference on Sunday at veteran Gandhian Anna Hazare’s village Ralegan Siddhi. The trio had come to meet Hazare after the committee meeting on Saturday in Kausambhi.
The meeting with Hazare assumed significance after the allegations of corruption against Bedi and Kejriwal and the apparent fissures emerging in the team. Two members waterman Rajendra Singh and activists PV Rajgopal have already resigned from the team.
Denying any rift in the team, Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan said team Anna had decided to weather the storm of allegations and harassment and continue with its fight for a strong Lokpal bill. “We would be betraying the trust of 120 crore people if we leave the movement at this juncture,” he said.
Replying to the allegations of high handedness and financial irregularities levelled against Kejriwal and his NGO Public Causes Research Foundation (PCRF), Kejriwal said it was decided at the outset that his NGO would work as the secretariat of the movement.
He also said the team would be writing to the banks to return the Rs40 lakh donated to the trust for the movement from unknown sources.
On charges of diverting funds for personal benefit, Kejriwal said, “I was working as a joint commissioner of Income Tax and if I had not indulged in corruption then, the mere thought of me doing the same now for just Rs40 lakh is absurd.”
He also said Hazare would be starting a nation-wide tour along with Team Anna members post the winter session of parliament in case the central government fails to pass a strong Lokpal bill by that time.
“We will continue with our campaign against the Congress in poll-bound states,” he said. He said the team does not support any party and its opposition to Congress is a pressure tactic to make the party pass a strong Lokpal bill.
1 comments:
Corruption has to be eradicated...
Pass any bill, fast for any long, spoil your health, allow minnows to take advantage of Anna's dedication, threaten anyone, hold parliament to ransom, allow corrupt ones take hide behind the screen of the supposed to be non-corrupt.... whatever you do is not going to end corruption in this country.
Let me try to drill in some basics into the anti-corruption brigade. There is something called as the rich and the poor.
Unless this rich-poor divide and unemployment is minimized (forget total eradication)... your campaign will fail .... the only benefit is going to be for those who have some hidden agenda ... political / monetary or otherwise..
Take a survey... how many rich (those without political / monetary / otherwise intentions) have supported the campaign... its only the poor or the mid-income who have come into open supporting the movement. Why??? The rich knows how to get things their way...
The poor and the mid-income people will be strangled / arm-twisted by the politicos and the babus.... which they will agree to since they don't have the political or the muscle power...
Take a simple example -The Foot path hawkers- its illegal in most cities. But they don't have another means of living. But if they try to do so there is the police / corporation people to squeeze out from them.
Here the hawker is doing something illegal for survival, which is a sort of corruption and the authorities is corrupt without saying.
What Thou say???
Take any profile of a poor guy struggling to survive... you will find how they are forced into corruption, knowingly or unknowingly..
I think your campaign for an un-corrupt india have to take different long route to reach the goal.
Currently you are trying a shortcut, which is going to be shortlived. And in the course of things a few are making themselves famous for their personal benefit.
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