The RSS’ open support to Mr Anna Hazare has not only put a question mark on who is behind his campaign but also explains why he has been soft on the corruption issue in the BJP-ruled states.
Mr Hazare had earlier praised Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. The RSS and its affiliated organisations had made Mr Hazare’s show (two fasts in Delhi) successful.
The Congress did not waste any time in drawing attention to the real players behind his anti-corruption campaign.
The Congress on Friday hit out at Anna Hazare saying the RSS chief’s admission that the Sangh volunteers participated in the recent movements against corruption has given lie to his claims that his campaign was non-partisan. “The Dussehra speech of Mohan Bhagwat vindicates what I had been saying all along that the campaigns of Baba Ramdev and Anna Hazare have been planned, engineered and organised by the RSS. I still hold to it,” Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh said.
Mr Bhagwat in his speech on Thursday said RSS volunteers “are already active in all movements against corruption without craving for their own position and credit”. Mr Hazare dismissed the RSS claim. According to an agency report from Ralegan Siddhi, he said: “Nobody approached me. Not a single RSS worker met me or approached me. How are they saying this?”