Anna Hazare undecided on ties with Swami Agnivesh

RALEGAN SIDDHI: Veteran social activist Anna Hazare on Saturday said that there was no harm in talking to social activist Swami Agnivesh.

Hazare made these remarks while interacting with mediapersons at his native village of Ralegan Siddhi in Maharashtra.

"What is the harm in talking (to him), we will think about it," Hazare said.

The Gandhian activist's remarks comes a day after Agnivesh expressed desire to apologize to Hazare after their fall out, when he was sitting on a hunger strike with an aim to exert pressure on the Central government to pass an effective Lokpal Bill.

Agnivesh had said that he was willing to apologize to Hazare after he made an exit from the popular reality show 'Bigg Boss'.

Earlier, in a video that was also posted on YouTube, Agnivesh was heard talking to a person named "Kapil", that many presume was Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, during the stand off between the Central government and Hazare in August.

In the video, Agnivesh was reportedly heard passing malicious comments about his fellow agitating civil society activists led by Hazare.

The controversial video had raised doubts over Agnivesh' claims of supporting Hazare's cause and ended in a fall out between the two.

Swami Agnivesh says he will apologize to Anna Hazare

NEW DELHI: Swami Agnivesh, who had a bitter fallout with anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare, has said he wants to apologise to the Gandhian if he has made any mistake.

Agnivesh, who ended his two-day stint on reality show Bigg Boss last night, said he would like to meet him as soon as possible.

"I will say sorry if I have said or done anything wrong. I will try to meet him as soon as possible. With all respect and humility I will apologise to him at the earliest opportunity," Agnivesh said.

The 72-year-old activist was in the eye of a storm soon after Hazare's hunger strike when a video surfaced in which he was seen talking to an unidentified person asking him to deal strongly with the Gandhian. This led to his estrangement from Team Anna.

When asked whether he would like to rejoin Anna's movement, Agnivesh said he never left it and would concentrate on being a reconciliation factor now.

"I will try to bring everybody together. I will talk to Baba Ramdev, Aruna Roy, Santosh Hegde and work towards regrouping on a large scale, without mulling over events in the past.

"I am sure the government will approve of Jan Lokpal on a constitutional level, but that's just a small part in the anti-corruption movement. We need to change people's mindset," he said.

Agnivesh said he was warned against entering the reality show on Colors but his fears ended once he was locked inside the house with the other contestants and he found it a good opportunity to convey his message to people.

"Despite the time constraint of squeezing 24 hours into 45 minutes, I think I got a good opportunity to deliver my message. Its a peaceful and reflective place with an informal environment. Nobody can manipulate you if you remain true to yourself," he said.

Agnivesh had entered the fifth season of Bigg Boss on November 8 and was locked in for two days alongwith contestants like Pooja Bedi, Juhi Parmar, Mahek Chahal and Shonali Nagrani.