JOIN USIndia Against Corruption (IAC) may take a pause on exposes. The anti-graft outfit is contented with the outcome of its recent exposes and feels it is time to concentrate on affairs of the party, which is to be formally launched on November 26.
However, according to sources, it does not mean any ‘ceasefire’; they will certainly raise voice against scandals whenever it is brought before them. “The fight against ministers and politicians exposed recently will also continue. The allegations against UPA ministers are already in the public domain,” they add.
The IAC was expected to come out with some more exposes involving UPA ministers, but it seems to be running short of time as anti-graft activists think it necessary to concentrate on organising the party, which was announced on October 2 and would be formally launched and named on November 26. The IAC will meet shortly to decide on their strategy in the coming days.
“The outcome has been very encouraging. IAC leaders, Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan could raise this point successfully that all the political parties including Congress and the BJP are working in unity when it comes to looting the country and the people. The case of BJP Chief Gadkari proves it,” said an insider.
“In Gadkari’s case, it is interesting to note that instead of advertising allocation of acquired land and leasing it to those who should get it, one political leader writes to the minister and the minister obliges to the politician,” points out the IAC insider.
As far as the outcome of the exposes involving Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra, Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid and BJP Chief Nitin Gadkari are concerned, anti-graft activists consider all of these a huge success. According to them, the campaign has spiral effect as information in these cases is continuously coming in.
IAC members consider it a mile-stone in their intervention in politics of announcement of internal Lokpal and submitting cases of Prasant Bhushan, Anjali Damania and Mayank Gandhi before them. “Political parties have never been transparent in their functioning. They did not accept our demand of constituting a Lokpal; we came out on our own and constituted one to probe into allegations against us. They are not members of our party and completely independent. It has a novel concept in upholding transparency in public life,” the IAC said.
IAC set to corner Khurshid on home turf
Undeterred by threats and attack on its activists the IAC is all set to corner Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid over alleged misappropriation of funds by Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust on his home turf of Farrukhabad on November 1, reports DHNS from Lucknow.
IAC claimed to have ‘solid’ evidence to prove its charges of large scale irregularities in the distribution of artificial limbs and appliances for the disabled in various parts of the state by the trust. “We have a certified list of beneficiaries at the camps organised by the Trust in 17 districts in UP during 2009-2010, we will produce the list at the meeting,” senior IAC member Sanjay Singh said.
Singh claimed that the UP government had already conducted a probe against the charges and found it to be true. “The state government, in its report sent to the Union government, had clearly stated that signatures of officials from 10 districts had been forged,” Singh added.
The IAC members said, the state government must extend full protection to Arvind Kejriwal. Another IAC member Iliyas Azami also questioned the rationale behind another probe into the trust’s dealings by the UP government. “We feel the second probe is merely an attempt to cover up; Mulayam Singh wants to shield Salman Khurshid,” Azami said.