Anna to restructure core committee

Two days after anti-graft crusader Anna Hazare denied plans of “restructuring” his team, he changed his mind on Monday saying he will form a new core committee, as the old core committee was only meant to be for two and a half months.

“That committee was only for two and a half months. But the committee that will now be formed will be for a much longer period with representations from Dalit, Muslims and tribal sections,” Mr Hazare said, while speaking to reporters in his village Ralegan Siddhi.

Mr Hazare further said that youth representation will be increased in the new team. “Even youth will be well represented, as their presence in the committee is extremely necessary. Youths from different communities will be picked for the committee,” he said. “In the new core committee we will incorporate all the sections of society so that nobody can complain that they were not given a chance,” Mr Hazare said.

However, on Friday, Mr Hazare, while denying any plans of restructuring the core committee, had snubbed his official blogger, Raju Parulekar, for making an announcement on his behalf. Insulted by the snub, Mr Parulekar on Saturday had then posted a hand written letter signed by Mr Hazare which talked about restructuring the core committee. Along with the letter, Mr Parulekar had alleged that Mr Hazare had “made up his mind to get away from Kejriwal, Bedi and Prashant Bhusan and their pawns in the core committee.” Mr Parulekar had also called Mr Arvind Kejriwal, Ms Kiran Bedi and Mr Prashant Bhushan “fascist”, “undemocratic” and “opportunistic.”

In the letter posted by Mr Parulekar, Mr Hazare has talked about expansion of his team, by including retired judges, army officers and people from every state of India. Mr Hazare has reiterated this idea of inclusion in his statement today. Mr Hazare also talked about forming two arms for the movement: a core committee and a working committee.