IANS/New Delhi


India’s national flags flutter in the wind on the grounds of Red Fort complex in New Delhi yesterday
The confrontation between the government and Team Anna Hazare over the fast for a strong Lokpal bill intensified yesterday with the Congress accusing Anna Hazare of being “neck deep in corruption” and the social activist demanding an apology on the allegations and vowing to continue his fast from Aug 16 till the charges are proved wrong.
The Congress’ remarks drew immediate condemnation from the Bharatiya Janata Party, which called the attacks on Hazare “unfortunate”.
Hazare said the government had earlier targeted other civil society members of the drafting committee on Lokpal Bill including Shanti and Prashant Bhushan, Justice (Retd) Santosh Hegde and Arvind Kejriwal and it was his turn now.
“They are liars and I am challenging the government to register a police complaint against me and start an inquiry. I am not afraid of any inquiry. I have decided that I will continue my fast till false allegations against me are proven wrong,” the 74-year-old Gandhian told reporters here.
Hazare also demanded that the government should apologise to him for false allegations.
The Congress Sunday made a strong attack on Hazare over the Justice P B Sawant report and demanded a reply to the charges.
“We want to ask Kisan Baburao Hazare alias Anna that with what face do you talk of fast against corruption? You are involved in corruption from top to bottom and we are not saying say this, this has been said by a probe panel which was headed by a former Supreme Court judge,” party spokesperson Manish Tewari said.
The Congress’s hardening stand came after Hazare’s letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in which Hazare accused the United Progressive Alliance of adopting “dictatorial stance” and asked the prime minister “with what face will he unfurl the tricolour” at the Red Fort on Independence Day today.
“The Lokpal bill has gone to the standing committee. He (Hazare) was invited before the panel which had representatives from several political parties... One stance inside and another outside. They (his words) are not an insult to the government but parliament,” Tewari said.
The Justice Sawant Committee was set up by the Maharashtra government to probe Hazare’s allegations of corruption against four state ministers, but one of the ministers had made counter-allegations against the social activist.
The government also mounted a counter attack on Team Hazare and termed the proposed protest over Lokpal bill as “undemocratic and unconstitutional”.
Federal ministers Kapil Sibal and Ambika Soni held a joint press conference here yesterday and accused Team Hazare of making wild allegations and using intemperate language.
“The right to protest is not an absolute right, it also imposes certain obligations on the citizen. His attack on the PM is not Gandhian. A fast is meant for personal purification and not publicity,” Sibal said.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said no one can force parliament to make a law according to his wishes. The laws do not allow anyone to commit suicide and added “always it has been the practice that protest, it must be definite, it cannot be indefinite,” he told media persons in Kolkata.
However, the government refused to go into specifics of Delhi Police’s permission to Hazare to hold protest for three days and said it is for the administration to look into this aspect.
The BJP targeted Congress for its allegations of corruption against Hazare. BJP president Nitin Gadkari said: “It is prime minister’s responsibility to protect democracy in the country. If the people under him are behaving undemocratically, will the prime minister not pay attention to it?”
Team Hazare rued that Manmohan Singh had failed to resolve the issue of restrictions imposed by Delhi Police on the fast.
“It is very depressing that the prime minister of this country says this is too small a matter for him to bother about,” said Prashant Bhushan.
In his attack on Hazare, Tewari said Justice Sawant committee had gone into four of the organisations associated with Hazare, and had found several wrongdoings.
Accusing Team Hazare of crossing ‘the Lakshman Rekha’, he said if someone was suffering from a combination of grandeur and grandstanding, then he needs to be shown his place. “That’s precisely what we have done today,” he said.
Stating that he will not let the anti-graft protest lose its momentum, Hazare said this was a now-or-never moment for the country. He exhorted people to reach the venue of his fast tomorrow and protest in a peaceful manner.
Hazare’s associate and former police officer Kiran Bedi said they apprehend that there might be an attempt to disrupt their peaceful protest in order to defame them. “None of our supporters will break the law or cause any damage to public property,” said Bedi.
CBI starts probe in fasting swami’s death
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) yesterday started probe into the mysterious death of Swami Nigamananda, who died at Dehradun in June after fasting for nearly four months to protest illegal mining on the Ganga riverbed, IANS reports.
“We have started a probe into the death of Swami Nigamananda after completing all formalities,” a CBI official said.
The Uttarakhand government, earlier, requested the central government for a CBI probe after local religious leaders alleged foul play in Nigamananda’s death in a hospital at Haridwar.
Religious leaders and the family of Nigamananda alleged that he was poisoned and suspected the role of local mining mafia in his death.
The 36-year-old seer of Haridwar-based Matri Sadan Ashram was on an indefinite fast since Feb 19. He was in coma when he passed away on June 13.