Embattled Anna hints at injecting fresh blood

A day ahead of Gandhian Anna Hazare-led India Against Corruption’s (IAC) crucial core committee meeting, Team Anna showed more signs of being in disarray with two of its key members Kumar Vishwas and Medha Patkar demanding revamp of the committee. Saturday’s meeting is likely to take a call on the fate and structure of the core committee.

Patkar along with former Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde will also not be attending the meeting — which Hazare too has himself decided to skip by extending his maun vrat (vow of silence).

But sources said the 24 core committee members would communicate indirectly with Hazare. “Hazare would be on the line on phone and he would convey his opinions in writing to an associate who, in turn, would read them out to the core committee members in Ghaziabad,” the sources maintained.

With allegations of financial misconduct dogging Team Anna members Kiran Bedi and Arvind Kejriwal and resignation of two others Rajinder Singh and PV Rajagopal, voices are being raised to dissolve IAC’s core committee and make it broad-based.

However, while Vishwas demanded dissolution of the core committee, Hazare’s official blogger Raju Parulekar hinted at its expansion. Parulekar said Hazare was contemplating forming a pan-India apolitical organisation to achieve his objective of a change in the whole electoral system. Nevertheless, he declined to go into details of when and how the revamp will take place.

“The new outfit would aim at not playing the game of election but to change the rule of the game of election,” Parulekar said, adding “it will be an apolitical organisation.”

Though Patkar and Vishwas did not criticise Kiran Bedi and Arvind Kejriwal, who are facing flak over the running of their NGOs and their financial integrity being questioned, they have referred to the allegations faced by the core committee members.

“I don’t think there is a difference of opinion. The only thing is a bit of overhauling is certainly becoming necessary because there are a number of allegations and core committee members are being targeted,” Patkar said.

Vishwas sought making the core committee more representative against the backdrop of Congress leaders targeting it. “Such attacks (against Team Anna members) and the subsequent clarifications will strengthen the conspiracy to divert the attention from the key issues...I request you to give greater representation to the core committee consisting of limited members and turn it into a hard-core committee comprising of 121 crore people.

“I once again urge you to dissolve the present core committee and create a new system to enable us to see a corruption-free new India,” Vishwas, a lecturer-poet, said. Vishwas has been in line of fire for giving his lectures a miss while participating in the Hazare-led movement in August.

In a veiled attack on key Team Anna members, Hegde had said on Thursday that Hazare’s strength did not lie in the core committee or the people’s honesty in it. However, he cited a prior commitment in Mumbai for not attending the meet and said there were no differences.

The meeting is likely to decide that the core committee members like Kejriwal and Bedi would fight out their personal issues on their own and IAC would not get involved in them. While Bedi is alleged to have overcharged her hosts for her air tickets, Kejriwal is accused of putting the donations made to IAC in his NGO Parivartan.

The meeting would discuss the IAC’s strategy ahead of the meetings of the Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances and Law and Justice on November 3 and November 4 to be attended by Team Anna members. It would also finalise its plan ahead of Parliament’s Winter Session, which is likely to commence in mid-November. The Parliamentary panel is examining the Lokpal Bill.

The Parliament had passed a “sense of House” during its Monsoon Session supporting the provisions of Hazare’s Jan Lokpal Bill. The Government has repeatedly said it was committed to bringing the Bill to the Parliament in the Winter Session for discussion and passage.