"Meeting with Salman Khurshid not kept secret"
In a development that will have repercussions for the already strained Team Anna-government relationship and the future of the Lokpal Bill, Anna Hazare on Wednesday said Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid had indeed engaged him in talks, persuading him to keep it a secret even from his team members.
What prompted the revelation was the fact that Minister of State in the PMO V. Narayanasami informed the other members of Team Anna of the ‘secret meeting’.
“I fell prey to the hope that something good will come out of this for the society. This proves yet again that the government is trying to create a rift between the members of Team Anna,” Mr. Hazare told a press conference here. The only member who knew about his meeting with Mr. Khurshid was Arvind Kejriwal, who was present at the press conference.
In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mr. Hazare accused him and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi of being part of a conspiracy to malign Team Anna. “What is the future of the country whose leaders have such bad character? It is a matter of concern for the people of India that its leaders are involved in such a conspiracy,” says the letter.
Mr. Hazare said he was approached by Shiv Sena MP Rajkumar Dhoot to be part of a meeting with Mr. Khurshid, held in a guest house run by industrialist Abhay Firodia in Khed taluk near Pune on June 23. According to Mr. Hazare, Mr. Khurshid said the three demands of Team Anna on the Lokpal issue — having a citizen’s charter, the provision for a Lokayukta in all States and inclusion of the CBI under the Lokpal — would be approved by the Prime Minister. In return, he requested Mr. Hazare to keep the meeting a secret from the media, the public and his team members. “He told me that after a detailed meeting with the Prime Minister and Ms. Sonia Gandhi we would hold a joint press conference and make the announcement of a strong Lokpal bill,” Mr. Hazare said.
However, Mr. Hazare raised the doubt with Mr. Khurshid about the implementation of the plan, as the draft of the Lokpal Bill was already with the select committee, “I wanted to know how the government would make changes in the draft which was already with the select committee but I did not get a reply.”
Meanwhile, on July 16 Mr. Narayanasami sent a letter to Mr. Hazare stating, “I have informed the Prime Minister about your recent efforts to create a public opinion on the issue of Lokpal [Bill].” Mr. Hazare said this letter was “hand-delivered” to his team members who did not know about the meeting with Mr. Khurshid, thus breaching his trust.
Asked if he had fallen into a trap laid by the government, Mr. Hazare told The Hindu: “I went in the hope that something good will come out for the society. I had no selfish motives but we have learnt that hope is a bad thing. I fell prey.”
Pointing out that he had now learnt his lesson and recognised the “conspiracy” hatched by the government, Mr. Hazare said in the letter that Team Anna would not talk to any Minister henceforth.
Keywords: India against corruption, Team Anna, Lokpal Bill, Hazare-Khurshid meet
agree with himanshu, people with nothing good behind them also doubt his intention. think if you are even an outta close to what he has done.
BTW if these stupids think that someone in white clothes will come from
heaven to fight against corruption....i can not wait that longer...
Why did Mr. Khurshid went to Pune to have meeting with Annaji and proposed Anna the acceptance of Janlokpal? Can he do this on his own without Mrs. Sonia Gandhi's or PM's or other cabinet members approval? Why did Mr. Narayanasami wrote a meaningless letter to Annaji and handed it over to other members of team Anna? Why nobody has refuted Anna's allegations in the letter to PM? doesn't this prove that all his allegations are true and Mr. Khurshid had indeed offered to include those 3 contentious points in the Lokpal Bill? Doesn't efforts of Cabinet ministers to go all the way to meet Anna and then hatching this conspiracy prove that the government is already apprehensive and shaken by the 25th July Anshan plan by Team Anna?
We hope in the near future that something good will be done by Team Anna
by putting pressure on the Govt to pass the long awaited strong Lokpal
Bill. Long Live Annaji.
Am I the one who noticed a collusion between opposition party and ruling party!
Internet is great. Anybody from comfort of his home can comment and doubt anybody's credibility. :-)
Let us find out Anna in ourselves and do something for our soceity, whatever little it may be. It can be as simple as cleaning our street clean with our own hands. Let's keep our 'MOTHER'-land clean.
UPA again wanted to play a game just like it had played with Baba Ramdev, by creating rift and breach of trust the same way it had done before. Obviously, secret meeting might not sounds good but using them to malign someone hints something fishy.
Anna Hazare is just making mountain out of molehill, if on the minister has asked him to keep the meeting secret, he may have reasons & it can be other fellow independently might have disclosed it the other team Anna members, his intentions may be as bad as it is made out to be, it is team Anna who is making it a big issue out of it, no powerful person has done this side information leakage. It can be that team Anna members were trying to gather information from the minister about what secretly transpired in the meeting & they irked at the secret deal & now Anna has to defend himself by throwing the ball into the govt court & it can be an exercise to rejuvenate the moment by raking such issues can be since they may be losing momentum & support. (Why did Anna agree to have secret deal without taking the other members of his team into confidence (secretly)This does not look like a decisive but taken offensive for reasons lesser than important.
Why would Hazare deal in secret talks...did he inform his team of this meeting prior to it....can he be trusted by anyone let alone his team? He must explain the circumstances around this meeting..why when where to what end??? Seems very fishy.
The govt has many ways to delay the agitation and postpone transparency. But People must learn the tricks that govt play and persist.
Cheers.. We r all together Anna.
Jai Hind.
The UPA government has made many failed attempts to sabotage the anti-
corruption movement of Team Anna. This is one more. One does not
understand why the government is stonewalling any effort to check
corruption by creating an effective institution of ombudsman as our
present anti corruption agencies are merely recommendary in nature
without any real power to act in an effective manner against the
corrupt politicians and bureaucrats. Is the UPA, (read Kapil Sibal and
Co) so afraid of an anti corruption body that it is using all sorts of
unfair means to unsettle the movement? What signal the government is
sending to the people?
Its amazing how the government is able to ignore such large protests like the movement started by Hazare last year. Ministers have already started re-allocating their black money from the Swiss Bank. I hope all guilty are brought to justice one day.
He is not ready to talk to the government . with who he will talk and pass the bill??????
The famous quote of I.F.STONE is applicable hear. " Every Govt. is run by liars,
Nothing they say should be bealived" my dear shri Annaji your decision of in feature
no secreate meetings with this UPA Govt. is welcome.
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