Amidst Controversies Team Anna And IAC
With Anna rising strong against Corruption Issue , in India, even the most hopeless Indian was forced to believe revolution ought to take place. Loud was the roar of Anna’s hunger-strike to pass the IAC recommended LokPal Bill and louder comes allegations against the Core Team Anna Members, one after the other !
It all started with Swami Agnivesh’s controversial tape where he was found back-biting his own Team , believed to be having a word with the Union Minister, over the phone. He tried getting away, giving excuses , which were baseless. The Media uncovered his reality.
Prashant Bhushan,one of the core team members of IAC(India Against Corruption) movement, faced serious criticisms, after he spoke his heart out about Kashmir. He was attacked by three people, at his office on the Supreme Court compound. Later it was learnt , one of the guy caught by the cops , was Indra Verma, leading Delhi unit of Sri Ram Sene. He was attacked because of his statement on Kashmir issue. Bhushan had, last month said in Varanasi that security forces should be withdrawn from Kashmir and a referendum be held to address the opinion of the Kashmiris.
Anna’s reactions to Prashant Bhushan’s statment were clearly indicating his discomfort. With the bold old man stating clearly, if need be , he would again dress-up as an Army, to fight for Kashmir , remaining intact with India.
Arvind Kejriwal , one of the most important members of Team Anna has been gheraod by controversies :
He was attacked by Jitendra Pathak , who threw a slipper at Kejriwal during a programme organised in Lucknow at the Jhulelal Park. Pathak explained, he has been following , Team Anna in their movement, so far and he noticed the diversification from core topics of the team and got furious and lost his temper. He ended up getting terminated from his job, after this incident. It is only him , who knows why he actually did so. Big deal, if the “Anti-Anna Team” has been behind this.
It is learnt, that Pathak, a former Congress Sewa Dal worker, has also wrote a letter addressing Anna, asking three questions and requesting satisfactory answers , to avoid himself going for undefinite, hunger-strike :
- Why Anna remained silent when the Shiv Sena and MNS workers attacked and even killed north Indians, living in Mumbai ?
- What he thinks of the violent attack on him(Pathak) by his (Anna’s)supporters when Pathak was trying to grab Kejriwal’s attention to ask him why the team members had failed to come out with convincing proof against the corruption charges levelled against them ?
- Why Anna is not demanding action against Prashant Bhushan who wants yet another partition of India ?
Coming back to Kejriwal,on September 2, Kejriwal was served a notice by the I-T department, accusing him of violating bond conditions as his resignation from government service was still pending.As per the government, Kejriwal is still an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer as the department has not accepted his resignation submitted in 2006.
The Income Tax Department, has issued a fresh notice asking Kejriwal to clear his dues of Rs 9 Lakhs, latest by the 27th of Oct’11, rejecting the reply of non-compliance from Kejriwal, in response to the first notice.
Again, it is no big deal, if this is pushed by the Government itself , which is the prime Anti- Anna Team, at present, after the loss at Hissar.
In between, two core members of the Team Anna, resigned. The first being, P.B. Rajagopal, the vice chairman of Gandhi Peace Foundation and the founding member of Ekta Parishad, which focuses on issues relating to right to livelihood of displaced people and the second Rajendra Singh, famous as the “waterman of India” and Magsaysay Award winner, known for his water-conservation efforts, in Rajasthan.
They found, Arvind Kejriwal sounded autocratic, in Hissar and Team Anna was going political and also declared they were forced to answer about decisions of Anna and the other team members, inspite of not being included while such decisions were taken. They marked lack of co-ordination and unclear dimensions of Team Anna, as the cause of their discomfort , to continue.
With latest proof of Kiran Bedi’s NGO presenting inflated bills for air ticket for a function she attended in Mumbai in 2009, it puts to question , if anyone is really worth trusting, in our country.
It was found by Headlines Today that, The Guild, an Air India employees’ union, organised a function on the International Women’s Day in Mumbai, in March 2009 and had invited Bedi. Headlines Today assessed an invoice for Rs. 31,000 sent by Flywell Travels for return ticket from Delhi to Mumbai. Bedi arrived in Mumbai from Pune and attended another function in Mumbai before leaving for Delhi.
Quite astonishing, the owner of the travel agency, Mr Anil Bal, also happens to be a co-trustee in Kiran Bedi’s NGO. Who knows, if the organisers of the other function, in Mumbai also paid for Bedi’s travel ?
All this has been revealed after Kiran Bedi’s explanation that the money(cheques), for her travel expenses were issued in the name of her NGO “India Vision Foundation ” and she would always let the organisers know , if she was traveling by economy class and also that the left-over money would always remain in the NGO fund, used for traveling to places , where organisers were unable to finance her travel. She also insisted, paying all left-over money, back to organisers, after the incident came into limelight.
Swami Agnivesh, who is no more the part of the Team Anna, has questioned , why the donations were going to Public Cause Research Foundation, led by Arvind Kejriwal(this foundation does not have names of major core team members including Anna) and there was yet no bank account for IAC(India Against Corruption), which is Arvind’s responsibility. He also claimed, that the Team is yet to show the balance-sheet of the 80lakhs collected, so far , by the IAC, which was promised to be on their website, for the public to have a look at.
Senior Congress Leader, Digvijay Singh has always been of the view that Anna is motivated by BJP and there has to be some connections, Anna or his team members, have with the RSS or BJP.
We , the commoners found all that a great leader should have , after the Media showed us, Anna sitting for hours , in front of Gandhi Samadhi and crying and wiping his tears. What do we conclude now ? Are we not left making guesses, as to who may be right ?
- Is Anna wrong or his selections are (the Corruption topic he chose to raise or the Core Team Members) ?
- Are these allegations worth closing eyes and considering that it is cooked-up by the Government ? While some surely sound cooked-up but are all of the issues unreal ?
- Is Anna totally correct, in his views, if he disregards Prashant Bhushan’s statement on Kashmir ? Is Kashmir all about the dignity and integrity of our country and we have nothing to do with the people living there , who are under Army Rule, since ages ?
- Who do we trust , if people like Kiran Bedi, accept charges of presenting inflated bills to organisers, just for another “cause” ? Is she the Robinhood of India, taking money from the rich (raising inflated bills on organisers, who can afford it) and claiming to use it for the poor(affording her travel, where organisers cannot afford so) ? is this right, even if the money would be refunded ? Is this ethical when someone like her, a Magsaysay award winner who gets 75% off on her air travel by Air India , raises inflated bill for a “right cause” ?
- It is a fact that Swami Agnivesh is taking out his agitation on Team Anna after he got exposed and expelled from the Team but is it not right that Anna and Arvind Kejriwal were leading IAC, should have done their homework of opening an Account and maintaining financial update, on the website , long before, as promised ?
- Ofcourse , Digvijay Singh’s criticisms do not carry weight , as he is from the Government but are his acquisitions totally baseless?
- Was Anna selective about his Core Team or he too is a commoner who did not recognize the “masked-foxes”, joining hands ?
The Ship of “India Against Corruption” got its share of media-hype and was sailing well. It gave food , enough in quantity, to the Media Houses , so much that they are busy finding out flaws, everywhere(with the same Ship, which they were praising, before) to keep the “Breaking News ” sessions rocking! The question is – Will it sink and so will the Captain Anna Hazare or will the Captain rather throw the unwanted baggage of controversial people including Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi and may be more(Media knows it better) , who may drown not only the Ship of INDIA AGAINST CORRUPTION but also cease commoners, like us to trust anyone for the next two decades, to come and enlighten the intentions and confidence of Corrupts in our country.
While addressing the Youth(Yuva) Sena , a wing of Shiva Sena, on the eve of the first anniversary of the wing, Bal Thakrey, the Sena supremo, via video-conference, praised people attacking Prashant Bhushan as he concluded that Bhushan was promoting divison of the country by stating that security forces should be withdrawn from Jammu and Kashmir and a referendum be held to elicit the opinion of the people and they be convinced rather be forced to be part of India. He was supported by son Uddhav Thackeray. The Sena Supremo also claimed he would rather address the country as Hindustan than India, a name given by British.
Is Manipur cornered just because the state is in one corner of the country? Are they not Indians? Is AFSPA Act which is forced in most of the North-Eastern Indian States, the never-ending solution to govern these States?
