No ‘fixed match’ with Congress: Anna Hazare
RALEGAN SIDDHI: There is
heartburn here over anti-graft
crusader Anna Hazare's
changing stand on the Lokpal
bill and the Congress, towards which he has adopted
a softer approach.
Agitated by accusations that he was playing a 'fixed match' with the Congress on the Lokpal issue and that he had softened his stand towards the Congress and its leader Rahul Gandhi, Hazare said he had no discussion with anyone about the Lokpal draft tabled in Rajya Sabha. "I have not met any Congress leader recently. Salman Khurshid was the only leader I met a long time ago before this agitation," said Hazare.
"I have congratulated all the parties except the Samajwadi Party which opposed the bill. However, it is a fact that if the Congress had supported this bill earlier and taken the stand they have taken today, the party could have reaped benefits in the assembly elections," he said.
But his supporters who have gathered in Ralegan Siddhi are unhappy about his contradictory statements since he started the indefinite fast last Tuesday to push for the Jan Lokpal bill.
"Earlier, Hazare had launched a blistering attack on parliamentarians and said that people's parliament is more important that the elected one. We were surprised on Saturday when he reversed his stand and said that Parliament and the government are the highest decision-making bodies and should be respected," said Vishwas, who had come from Ahmednagar to support the agitation.
During the first phase, Anna had praised Arvind Kejriwal and Aam Admi Party's growth and asked them to contest the Lok Sabha elections. But in the last few days he has lambasted them saying that one cannot bring change in one election.
After AAP was launched, Hazare had publically said, "If Arvind contests, I will support him. I will support his candidates if they are clean. Our paths are different, but our mission is the same. Somebody needs to enter Parliament, and he adopted that path."
But during the fast Hazare said he and AAP have separate missions and he will not support the party in its agitation for the Jan Lokpal. Hazare maintained he has not changed his stand about AAP. "There is no issue at all. Why are you people from the media interested in what happened between me and Arvind. There are no clashes," he said.
