Social activist Anna Hazare’s emegence as a crusader against corruption at the national level is making some leaders in the Hindi heartland restive.
They have started branding him as pro-Narendra Modi through suggestive comments and private conversations despite the fact that he has also praised Bihar chief
minister Nitish Kumar, appreciating work of the two CMs in the filed of rural development. But their real agenda appears to be either discredit the anti-graft campaign by diluting or delay the Lokpal Bill.
While a section of the Congress is in touch with some people contemplating to file a PIL in the appropriate court expectedly on Friday on the constitution of the joint drafting committee for the Lokpal Bill, especially on the representatives of the civll society, others are working on collecting information about his trusts in Maharashtra.
Mr Hazare has been influenced by the works and thoughts of Swami Vevekananda, Mahatma Gandhi and Acharya Vinoba Bhave.
But his critics are keen to brand him as a RSS sympathiser, ignoring that the RSS had actively participated in the Jayprakash Narayan’s movement against Indira Gandhi and V.P. Singh’s campaign on the Bofors deal.
Though top leaders of the Congress, BJP, Left are refusing to join the “branding game”, second-rung leaders of political parties are raising questions about the integrity of the social activist who has been active in the rural development works and reforms for over three decades.
Top leaders of the BSP, Samajwadi Party, the RJD have been maintaining silence on the corruption issue but their second rung leaders like former Union minister Rghuvansh Prasad Singh, Mr Mohan Singh and even a section of the Congress are raising doubts and questioning the motives of the social activist even after the constitution of the joint drafting committee for the Lokpal Bill.