JOIN USAnna back in game with new team
Less than two months after parting ways with his close aide Arvind Kejriwal, Gandhian activist Anna Hazare on Saturday announced a 15-member coordination committee to carry forward the demand of a strong Jan Lokpal.
“Corruption in public place and revamping the system” will remain the focus area of the new Team Anna.
“The renewed movement would focus not just on Lokpal but also on a complete overhaul of the system, right to reject elected candidates and citizen’s charter for time-bound services to the public. We need a revolution to change the corrupt system in this country,” Hazare told media persons speaking on his future course of action.
While there were rumours of differences between Anna and Kejriwal for quite some time, Hazare had on September 19 confirmed his “separation” from the latter over the move to form a political party.
He had directed Kejriwal not to use his photographs or name for political campaigning. However, Kejriwal has managed to hog the limelight for some reason or the other while Anna moved back to his village in Maharashtra to work on his next plan of action.
Announcing his new team with six new faces, Anna confidently said the movement will become a strong force by 2014 general elections.
“It has been two months since Team Anna disintegrated. There were doubts as to whether the movement was stalled and why was Anna silent. But the movement is on and we have received suggestions about the future course of action from thousands of people, including scores of Army, IAS, IPS officers, who want to join our campaign,” Hazare said.
Hazare also said he would open office in south Delhi’s Sarvodaya Enclave on Sunday.
While pitching for a robust Lokpal before the 2014 polls, the Gandhian announced to embark on a nationwide tour from Gandhi Maidan in Patna from January 30. “I will campaign throughout the country and try to wake up the conscience of the people,” he said.
Responding to a query on differences with Kejriwal, Hazare said: “I will campaign for him if he fights elections.”
He also clarified that retired Army chief General V K Singh was not a part of his core group.
New team retains some old faces
Old faces : Justice (Retd) Santosh Hegde, Kiran Bedi, Medha Patkar, Akhil Gogoi, Sunita Godara, Arvind Gaur, Shivendra Singh Chauhan and Rakesh Rafiq.
New faces: Former DGP (Punjab) Shashikant, former IAS officer Avinash Dharmadhikari, Lt Col Brijendra Khokhar, Pan Singh Arya, activist Akshay Kumar and agriculture expert VishambharChaudhary.