Rift in Team Anna on Bhushan, members dismayed at flip-flop

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Notwithstanding Anna Hazare's clarification on the status of Prashant Bhushan in his anti-corruption struggle, serious differences appeared to have cropped up in Team Anna on some important issues facing his campaign.

Hazare's latest position that the Core Committee of his campaign will meet and decide whether Bhushan will continue in his team or not has surprised the other Team Anna members, sources said today.

In two days, Hazare has changed his stand on Bhushan, who is in the eye of the storm for his advocacy of plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir, thrice, much to the dismay of some of his team members.

74-year-old Hazare had on Friday noon said that the continuance of Bhushan will be decided soon, only to retract following a meeting of Core Committee which met in New Delhi.

Though he did not attend the meeting, the members were in constant touch with him and Hazare issued a clarification in his blog, blaming 'some negative forces' in media for spreading lies in his name.

However, the blog posting disappeared within hours, without giving any reasons. Bhushan had kicked off a controversy through his advocacy of plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir. The issue came to fore after three youths attacked him in his office in New Delhi last week.

The real shocker for some of the key members came when Hazare told a TV channel last night, 'I am against anybody who talks about dividing the country. I am very uncomfortable with what Bhushan has said. Our core committee will meet to decide on his continuing as a team member. After it meets. I will take a decision'.

With this, Hazare went back to his original stand of distancing himself from Bhushan's remarks on Kashmir.