Team Anna’s pamphlets attack Cong
Contrary to its public proclamation of not targeting Congress, the Team Anna’s literature for the campaign in the poll-bound states shows a clear bias against the Congress and some leniency towards the BJP.
The pamphlets to be used in the campaign, which starts on Saturday from Haridwar, not only attacks the party for failing to pass a strong Lokpal Bill, but targets some important Congress leaders including Digvijay Singh and Beni Prasad Verma, the leading campaigners of the party in Uttar Pradesh.
They have also targeted Home Minister P Chidambaram.
The pamphlet asks Rahul Gandhi, “Why does the Government protect corrupt leaders like Chidambaram through CBI? Does he support it?”
The pamphlet alleges that “the Congress government at the Centre has cheated Anna and people of the country at every step when the movement for strong Lokpal Bill was on.”
The India Against Corruption’s (IAC) pamphlet asks uncomfortable questions to Mulayam and Mayawati as well. “Why did your party staged a walkout in Lok Sabha to benefit the Congress when Lokpal bill was presented? Will you put the condition of withdrawing CBI cases against your top leaders while making alliances after polls?
The IAC pamphlet does not pose any embarrassing question to the BJP and does not target any of the party leaders. It certainly praises Uttarakhand Chief Minister B C Khanduri several times for coming out with a strong Lokayukta Bill.
However, the team, Arvind Kejriwal, Prashant Bhushan and Manish Sisodia reiterated in a press conference on Friday that they will not support or oppose any party.
They would oppose caste and religion centric campaigns in elections. Denying that they have been soft on the BJP, Prashant Bhushan referred to his petition against illegal mining in Karnataka and Justice Santosh Hegde’s report on it.
“However, when it comes to what has been done to the Lokpal Bill, we will say that the Central Government has cheated the people,” said Kejriwal.
“We will not tell people to vote for or against any party. We want people’s issues in the centre of elections.
At present, issue like land acquisition and people’s participation in law making are not part of the election discourse,” said Kejriwal.
“We will ask people to elect candidates of clean image and campaign against muscle and money power,” said Bhushan.
