Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: Veteran Gandhian Anna Hazare, who broke his ‘vow of silence’ on Friday, accused the Centre of conspiring to make the Jan Lokpal Bill weak, while announcing that core committee spearheading the anti-corruption movement would be reconstituted with 3-4 months.
"Government`s intention is doubtful...The government is trying to weaken the Jan Lokpal Bill by cutting it into pieces. All these provisions were there in the Jan Lokpal
Bill," Anna said. He was referring to the government’s move to bring separate bills for a citizens` charter and to protect whistleblowers.
However, he said that he would be attending a meeting with the Standing Committee of Lokpal later today.
Congress not sincere
Accusing the government of not being sincere in its efforts to formulate an effective ant-corruption legislation Anna said that he will campaign against the Congress in the five
poll-bound states.
“Let anybody say anything. I will campaign against those
who did not bring the bill. I will go and campaign and say do
not give vote to Congress if the Bill is not passed in the
Winter Session of Parliament," he said.
Addressing a press conference in the national capital, Hazare said if the Bill is not passed, he will fast for three days and then will go for a nation-wide tour.
Anna said, “No party has come from Pakistan or England…Hisar was an example; we wanted to show - when Team Anna worked against the Congress, its candidate lost his deposit.”
Asked if he will campaign against BJP, he said he will not campaign for the party. "I won`t campaign for BJP. There is no difference between Congress and BJP…one has done graduation, the other has a doctorate,” he quipped.
On his letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
threatening to restart his agitation if the Jan Lokpal Bill
was not passed, he said he just wanted to remind the
government about the passage of Bill.
New look Core Committee soon
Anna revealed that he is working towards overhauling the existing core committee system to make it more representative of all sections of the society.
“I have told my fellow activists that Core committee should not be disbanded at this juncture, we have good people with us now, but in the future we will have a bigger committee which will include people of all regions, religions, caste and creed,” he said.
“We are formulating a new constitution for the movement, followed by a core committee and a working committee,” he said, adding that it will take around 3-4 months.
Some drawbacks but no corruption in team
With regards to the accusations of impropriety levelled against some key Team Anna members, he said, "There could be some drawback but that does
not mean corruption."
“It(allegations) is nothing new for us, people who do good work are always targeted , if anybody has done any wrong then the government should conduct a probe and punish the guilty," he added.
On the issue of Prashant Bhushan’s controversial remarks supporting plebiscite in Kashmir, Anna responded by saying, ‘let the bygones be bygones’; however he was prodded further by a journalist, to whom he said “You (media) always look for masala.”
Will honour Khanduri for Lokayukta Bill
Lauding the Uttaranchal government of BC Kanduri as well as the Opposition parties in the state for Lokayukta bill passed by the state Assembly, he said, “We will tell the government (Centre) that if corruption has to be eradicated then they should emulate the Jan Lokayukta Bill passed by the Uttaranchal government.”
“Till the time people wrest the power, there can’t be true democracy…the picture of Uttaranchal will change for the better in a short span of time now,” he added.
Anna said he will honour the Chief Minister here for his "bold step".
