Team Anna lowers rhetoric,no campaign against any party

Team Anna’s core committee had met in Delhi yesterday amid “confusion” on how to take the movement forward after a tepid public response to Hazare’s fast in Mumbai against the Lokpal Bill brought by the government in Parliament. Hazare has also been criticised of his anti-Congress posture.

According to sources,a section in the team,including social activist Medha Patkar and a few others,were against the movement solely targeting the Congress on the Lokpal issue. Though Patkar did not attend yesterday’s meeting,she sent a note on this.

Key members of his team,including Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan,met Hazare to inquire about the 74-year-old Gandhian’s health after he was discharged from a Pune hospital recently and to communicate to him what had transpired at the core committee meeting.

The core committee had decided to leave it to Hazare to take the final call on its future strategy,including whether or not to target any single political party in the imminent polls.

Kejriwal said Hazare was still “very ill” and a decision on whether he would join other members of his team on the tour would be taken only after he has fully recovered.

The team,however,will create public awareness in poll-bound five states about the Lokpal Bill.

Kejriwal was critical of the Centre for bringing a “weak” Lokpal Bill despite “lakhs and crores of people” taking to the streets in support of a strong anti-graft ombudsman.

Bhushan said the supporters of Hazare would create awareness about efforts made by his team for a strong Lokpal and the stand taken on it by the government and other political parties.

“The government had a greater responsibility but the role played by other parties too was doubtful. In any case,we are not going to campaign against any party,” he said.

Bhushan said Team Anna proposed to organise a conference on ‘Rebuilding the Republic’ on January 26 where participants would discuss ways to bring about “total involvement” of people in policy formulation,law-making and nation building.

Kejriwal maintained no political party could claim to be corruption-free.

“The events that are happening show that no political party is clean and without taint of corruption. Our fight is bigger and aimed at bringing about a change in the system.”

In reply to a question,the bureaucrat-turned-social activist said: “We were never anti-Congress.”

Team Anna had earlier declared it would campaign against the Congress for not bringing a strong Lokpal Bill before Parliament.

It had also campaigned against Congress in the Lok Sabha bypoll in Hisar in the party-ruled Haryana in October last year.