Hazare calls Kejriwal power drunk; he says Anna is being used

Kejriwal, along with Deputy CM Manish Sisodia and former AAP members Yogendra Yadav, Prashant Bhushan and Kumar Vishwas, was part of the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement with Anna Hazare in 2011. When the decision to form a party was made, Hazare was not on board.

In his letter, which was released to the press on Tuesday, Hazare referred to ‘Swaraj’, a book written by Kejriwal in 2012. “You wrote several idealistic things in the book. I had high hopes from you then, but it seems that after entering politics and becoming the chief minister, you forgot that ideology,” he said. Hazare had written the foreword of the book.

“It seems to me that the new policy will lead to increased consumption of liquor and rise in alcoholism, and liquor vends will come up in every lane. This will lead to an increase in corruption,” said Hazare. “Like addiction of liquor, there is an addiction of power and it seems that you are drunk on it,” he said. “AAP had talked about adopting the political path. But you forgot that forming a political party was not the aim of our movement,” he said.

Citing the complete liquor ban in his village of Ralegan Siddhi in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district, Hazare said he had expected Kejriwal to implement a similar policy in the national capital as well. “But you didn’t do that. People often get trapped in this vicious cycle of money to power, and power to money,” he said.
Hazare’s letter comes at a time when the CBI is probing alleged irregularities in the excise policy.

In the past, Hazare has often objected to the open sale of liquor. Earlier, he had opposed a decision by the then Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government in Maharashtra, which would have allowed retailing of wine in some supermarkets in the state. The BJP had supported Hazare. Faced with the threat of an agitation, the state government had rolled back the decision.

– With ENS inputs, New Delhi