Mufti Shamum Kazmi, a key Team Anna member who was expelled from the group for allegedly recording secretly the proceedings of a core committee meeting, on Tuesday said the charges against him were “fabricated”.
“I don’t know the functions of a mobile phone so how can I record the proceedings of the meeting,” he told reporters here.
He alleged some people in the committee were trying to achieve their political ambition in the name of drive against corruption and “they could not digest my close proximity to social activist Anna Hazare, my recent meeting with UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and my soaring popularity. So they fabricated the charges against me”.
Mr. Kazmi claimed the fund collected under Public Cause Research Foundation (PCRF), meant for strengthening the Lokpal movement, were misused.
He said during the core committee meeting, Anna had expressed his unhappiness over the apparent campaigning by some of Team Anna members to enter into politics in Himachal Pradesh and irregularities in the auditing and accounting of the funds.
Meanwhile, Manish Sisodia, another key member of the Anna-led core committee, said political interests had used activists like Agnivesh and Mufti to weaken their movement against corruption.
In reference to the Mufti’s statement regarding his ignorance about mobile phone functions, Sishodia said it is hard to believe that the person who had sent him SMSes in the past, could not operate mobile phone.
High drama was witnessed at Team Anna’s core committee meeting in Noida April 22 when Mr. Kazmi was allegedly found recording the proceedings.
Mr. Kazmi stormed out of the meeting presided by Anna and announced his resignation to the media outside the venue.
“He was caught red-handed,” prominent Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal had told reporters.
The meeting was called to discuss the anti-corruption movement’s future course of action against the backdrop of growing unease in Team Anna over the “one-up manship” of yoga guru Ramdev, with whom they had stitched an alliance to fight for the cause.
Team Anna had sought to put the blame on all news leaks on the deliberations of its previous meetings to Mr. Kazmi and said they were astonished earlier how media was getting details of the meetings while it was underway.
Keywords: Team Anna, Civil Society member
As Mr. Mohan said, if Mufti wanted to reveal anything to anyone, then he could have done so. It is nothing but a fabrication by some vested interests in Team Anna.
Team Anna wanted to have the proceedings of their talk with the government recorded, then they should also do the same during their meeting, there should be no double standards
Team Anna should not be scared of any recording since they have been constantly demanding transparency and, therefore, at their own platform
each and everything has to be crystal clear.At the same time Kazmi's so-called very reliable secretly recording the proceedings does not reveal the intentions.This is not something new in the Indian history.The intruders always succeeded in persuading some of the very reliable teammate and defeated the very object of the mission. We must not forget the movement how Dibbawalas, Motormen of the local trains,autoricksawalas and even weakest person of the society has come out with a hope that drastic change are going to emerge and new dawn is ahead.Every civilian and Team Anna members always had to bear their expectations in mind.
Weak links will always break down and that is the law of
nature.Recording of any proceedings without the consent of the presiding
officer is a malpractice and hence team anna has every right to expel
Kazmi. Kazmi playing the communal card is due to his desperation and to
cover up his sin and whip up minority passion. Agnivesh was also meted
out the same treatment so where does the question of singling out
muslims arise. On a whole a well calculated drama to further weaken the
anna movement by the very forces opposing the LOKPAL BILL.
The Mufti is neither the first IAC core committee member to quit nor will he be the last. The hidden agenda behind the likes of Kejriwal would drive more members out of the forum. Anna has lost control over his movement. Why does Kejriwal object to recording the proceedings- is there something that the public should not know?
Mufti might be seeking his own benefit in the drama however it exposes that how weak this so called movement is! All are gathered under the banner of IAC. This group has been asking for video recording of parliamentary committee and today is scared of small recording on phone. if he ha d to tell it to the pubic why recording on phone? All knew he was a prominent member if IAC and anybody could have believed him.
I dont think IAC is clean in this matter. Mufti might have given a communal color to it but there is more than known to the public......... One after the other leaving IAC has raised serious doubts on the integrity of the IAC and its members..............
We have heard time and again from Muslim celebrities to politicians to common citizens -
that, if some wrongdoing is allegeded against them they almost always allege back that they
were being targeted because they are Muslims.
This is not right.
Anna team should be away from fanatic people.
Why would anybody record anything for passing info. He is physically
present there and he can narrate everything to anyone he pleases.
IAC is an open, ALL-INCLUSIVE, ALL-INDIA movement, its foundation
built on national consensus, and as such it will always remain
vulnerable to infiltration and sabotage.
It has been shown over the past year that the vested interests will
stop at nothing to derail the anti-corruption movement, and one way to
do that is to attack the leaders and supporters of that movement.
Sadly, mischief-making and diversionary side-shows persisted even
during Mahatma Gandhi's time.
Citizens are alert to these ploys.
Misuse of power and wealth, manipulation of laws, systems and
processes manifesting as national plunder, tyranny of corruption,
daily extortion through bribery is DESTROYING democracy, quality of
life, corroding moral and fabric of society, holding back growth and
progress, enlarging the gulf between the rich and poor and condemning
ever larger groups to remain in poverty. PATRIOTIC INDIANS KNOW THAT
REDUCING CORRUPTION IS THE NEED OF THE HOUR.
Mufti Shamum Kazmi's actions and public utterances does not befit a 'civil society member' and exposes his hollowness in intentions to work for a corruption less society. He also lacks the humility to admit his mistakes and instead rakes up the communal issue to his advantage. These are minor distractions created by self seekers and many like me are hopeful that Anna's team would be able to bring the govt around to agree for a bill that can put fear in officials and politicians and make them stay away from corrupt practices.
He says - “I don’t know the functions of a mobile phone so how can I record the proceedings of the meeting”
Funny, recently in the scandal at Karnataka assembly the involved minister also said the same!!
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