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Journalism of Courage
Team Anna said on Sunday that it would hold a referendum on the Jan Lokpal Bill in the constituencies of the standing committee members,party presidents and other important political leaders. This decision was taken after a marathon eight-hour closed-door meeting of the core committee here.
We will ask people whether they will vote for these leaders if they do not support the Jan Lokpal Bill in Parliament, said Arvind Kejriwal. He said the referendum would be held in the next two-and-a-half months before the winter session of Parliament.
Kejriwal said they would also embark on a yatra in poll-bound states. We will try to find out the views of the contesting parties on the Jan Lokpal. If they support the Jan Lokpal,we will ask the people to vote for them, he said in his opening address to the media.
But later,replying to questions,Kiran Bedi clarified: We will not support them,but we are going to explain their stand on the Jan Lokpal to the voters. Let the people decide. If they take a positive stand and we explain their position to the voters,they will benefit in the election. Why shouldnt they benefit?
Kejriwal also hastened to clarify that they would not support any particular candidate. Interjecting,activist Medha Patkar said though their anti-corruption campaign was a political movement,it was non-party based.
Kejriwal said Team Anna would carry out a special audit of their sources of money and expenditure from April 1 to September 30,2011 and put it up on their website. He said Team Anna members would also declare their assets on the website by October 15.
He said they would appoint a team of three retired judges to probe charges of corruption against any of the team member. If found guilty,we will do what the judges direct us to do, Kejriwal said.
Denying any RSS links,Prashant Bhushan said: There are allegations that Arvinds father has RSS links and another member was at the forefront of Baba Ramdevs campaign. This is all false. We will ask the newspapers and magazines which carried such baseless allegations to apologise or face defamation suits.
On the right to recall,Bedi said Hazare would write to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to seek his views and they would ask experts to come up with effective suggestions. Even the Election Commissioner is in favour of the Right to Recall Act, she said.
