Ralegan Siddhi/New Delhi: The RSS statement
that it was part of Anna Hazare's movement on Friday snowballed
into a controversy with the Gandhian dismissing the claim and
Congress saying it has given lie to his claim of being
non-partisan.
Debunking the RSS claim, Hazare told reporters, "nobody
approached me. Not a single RSS worker met me or approached
me. How are they saying this? I don't know."
He was reacting to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's remarks at
the RSS' annual Dussehra rally in Nagpur yesterday that its
volunteers "are already active in all movements against
corruption without craving for their own position and credit".
Referring to Bhagwat's claim, Congress General Secretary
Digvijay Singh said Bhagwat's Dussehera speech "vindicated"
what he had been saying all along that "the campaigns of Baba
Ramdev and Anna Hazare have been planned, engineered and
organized by the RSS".
"I still hold to it," he told reporters here.
Taking a jibe at Hazare for his previous reactions to his
such remarks, Singh said, "whenever I say that Anna's campaign
was run by the RSS, he tells me that I should go to the mental
asylum. Now after Mohan Bhagwat's assertions, I want to ask
Anna do I still need to go to an asylum?"
The senior Congress leader said that Hazare should now
accept the RSS involvement in his agitation since Bhagwat has
already "admitted" it.
At the AICC briefing, party spokesperson Manish Tewari
echoed similar views saying "what is evident need not to be
evidenced" when asked about Bhagwat's statements.
The party reaction came against the backdrop of the
Gandhian announcing his plans to campaign against it in the
Hisar Lok Sabha bypoll.
Tewari, however, downplayed the issue saying that
Congress fights all the elections with full gusto and accepts
people's verdict with grace. "We will try our best to win the
trust of the people," he added when pointed out that Hazare
has decided to campaign against Congress there.
Bhagwat in his speech yesterday lashed out at Government
for attempting to crush anti-corruption movement and condemned
the reported police brutality on the supporters of Baba Ramdev
at Ramlila Maidan in June.
PTI
First Published: Friday, October 07, 2011, 23:18