Cracks appear in Team Anna

Swami Agnivesh wants fast to end after govt sends bill to parliamentary panel

Though the crowd at Ramlila Ground is swelling, the continuation of fast is causing cracks in Anna’s team and loss of enlightened support.

Senior members like Swami Agnivesh and Justice N Santosh Hegde came out on Friday to criticise the move. They want the Gandhian to end his fast immediately.

The dissenters in the camp strongly disapprove of his condition that Parliament should pass a resolution ensuring inclusion of lower bureaucracy, state Lokayuktas and Citizens’ Charter in the Lokpal bill. According to them, it is “dictating to Parliament”.

According to insiders, while people like Swami Agnivesh and N Santosh Hegde have openly expressed their differences, others are expressing it informally. Dissenters in the camp strongly feel that Anna should have ended his fast after appeals from the Prime Minister and the Parliament. “There is no reason for Anna Hazare to continue his fast. They lost a golden opportunity when the Prime Minister Parliament appealed. They didn’t end the fast,” said Agnivesh on Friday.

“ There was no point in continuing the fast after the government sent the Jan Lokpal bill to the Standing Committee. I was part of initial Team Anna and all of us only wanted that the bill should be discussed in Parliament. The initial plan did not include dictating to Parliament under what sections or what rules the bill should be discussed.  I don’t know who is now deciding on all the new conditions that are being put forward,” said Agnivesh.
“This is seen as a threat to Parliament ‘you do it by tomorrow or day after’, said Agnivesh. However, he accused the government that if it had acted in time the fast would not have happened.Justice Hegde has also expressed similar opinions. He also wants the Gandhian to call off the fast immediately. He has also declared his disassociation from the Anan’s Team.

Hegde, also a member of the Joint Drafting Committee on Lokpal bill, strongly disapproved of Anna’s condition put before Parliament. “I feel I am not in Team Anna anymore by the way things are going. These (telling Parliament what to do) are not democratic things”.