Swami Agnivesh hits out at Team Anna

Swami Agnivesh hit out against Team Anna for its sudden political U-turn saying that it was done without any deliberation.

In a serious charge against Anna Hazare’s fast in August last year, Agnivesh said that the Prime Minister’s letter on August 25 was released on Anna’s request.

Swami Agnivesh told Express that the fast was going on indefinitely, and that Anna’s health was deteriorating. “Then he sent a few trusted associates to former Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to ask him to facilitate a letter from the Prime Minister.” He added that even key Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal did not know of this development.

“Anna had specifically requested for the letter to be written in Hindi or Marathi. By doing so, he himself could read it without having to send it to the other team members for translation. Deshmukh barged in with the PM’s letter to the Ramlila Ground.

“However, he was stopped by Medha Patkar since no one knew about Anna’s request, and also because Deshmukh was facing several corruption charges. People were even more surprised when Anna declared the end of the fast immediately after receiving the letter,” said Swami Agnivesh.

He opined that the political turn taken by team Anna was also nothing new. The sudden expulsion of core member Mufti Shameem Kazmi was based on the issue of going to elections.

“On a day when the team was discussing the issue of going to elections, Mufti Shameem Kazmi was on his mobile phone. When asked, he said that he was about to send the discussion online. Suddenly, the members expelled him as though he was a traitor leaking out confidential information,” said Swami Agnivesh.

He added that the team had talked about going for elections way back during the Himachal Pradesh elections.

He also said that this year’s fasting in New Delhi was without any agenda, too. The Lokpal Bill is currently with the selection committee. The chances of the bill being passed before the monsoon session, which will end in a few days, is quite far-fetched.

Even the demand to set up an independent special investigation team to probe into the corruption charges involving the Prime Minister and other ministers within such a short notice can hardly be an agenda for an indefinite fast.

Another issue raised by the Swami was the money that was sent by people from across the country for the Anna Hazare Movement. All the money was sent to a private trust run by Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia. “Now that Team Anna has disbanded, where will all that money go?” he asked.