After Anna Hazare declared that he will campaign in the poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, one of the top campaigner of the Congress in the state Raj Babbar has questioned his credibility, asking where was he when people from the Hindi heartland were being evicted and harassed in Mumbai.
Mr Babbar said that though he supported the issue of fighting corruption he has doubts about credibility of people behind the movement.
Mr Babbar, who is a Lok Sabha MP from Firozabad, sought to know why Mr Hazare did not take a stand when a number of people from UP and other north Indian states faced the ire of MNS in Mumbai.
“Now that Mr Hazare wants to campaign in UP he should explain where was his Gandhian ideals when the Babri mosque was being demolished. He should also tell the Muslims of UP what was he doing when scores of members of minority community were being massacred in Gujrat during the post-Godhra riots,” said Mr Babbar, while speaking to this newspaper.
The Congress MP claimed that the team Anna campaign is like a bubble which will soon fizzle out and would have no bearing on the outcome of the UP Assembly elections. “We do not need to counter assertions of the team Anna. People after a while will come to know of the real intentions of the campaign, which is a clear front of BJP-RSS combine,” added Mr Babbar.
He also charged that the RSS has been in the habit of propping up photographs of Gandhi, Patel and Bose depending on its requirement. Mr Babbar claimed that campaigns of Sri Sri Ravishankar, Ramdev and others in UP would not make much of a difference. These campaigns reflect desperation in the saffron camp, added Mr Babbar. He said it was bizarre to see people like Kiran Bedi leading the campaign against corruption.