After the abrupt end to the fast in Mumbai, and the cancelled agitation in front of Sonia Gandhi’s house, Anna Hazare will not undertake his much planned campaign against the Congress in the five poll-bound States too.
The anti-graft activist’s tour to campaign against the Congress for failing to bring in a Lokpal Bill has been cancelled due to his weak health, Team Anna member Kiran Bedi said in Pune on Thursday.
“Anna is not going to campaign in the States. Anna is not going to travel which we have urged him not to. Doctors are not allowing any more fast, any more exposure through travel at the moment,” she told reporters after visiting Mr. Hazare at the Sancheti Hospital in Pune.
After ending his scheduled three-day fast in two days in Mumbai in December 2011, and cancelling his plan to stage a dharna in front of Ms. Gandhi’s house, this is the third agitation for a strong Lokpal Bill that stands cancelled. Mr. Hazare had promised that he would campaign in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur which are going to polls between January 28 and March 3.
After the Parliament failed to bring in a Lokpal Bill in the recently concluded session, Team Anna has not yet revealed its strategy for the future of the movement.
Ms. Bedi stated that the further course of action for the movement will be decided at the Core Committee meeting which will be held in New Delhi on January 7, 2012. Mr. Hazare will not attend the meeting.
Ms. Bedi said that Mr. Hazare’s thoughts on the future of the movement will be conveyed to the team. “I had a message for Anna from the Team, and I am carrying back Anna’s orders and thoughts back. I will be placing those matters before the meeting. We will decide our future course of action. That is where we will take collective, sensible and mature decision,” she said.
Appealing to the people to pray for the crusader’s health for future agitations, Ms. Bedi said, “He is on antibiotics and drips. That’s why he needs rest at the moment and visitor control is required. He needs total care at the moment which can only be given to him at the hospital for a few more weeks to prevent any relapse,” she said.
Mr. Hazare will undergo a full check up on Friday, after which the decision to discharge him will be taken, Dr. K.H. Sancheti who is treating him, said.
Cong. demands Team Anna’s stance on BJP
Accusing Team Anna of being more anti-Congress than anti-corruption yet again, the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) general secretary Sanjay Dutt demanded the team’s stance on “BJP’s double standards” of inducting tainted minister Babu Sigh Kushwaha in the party.
In an official statement, Mr. Dutt has said that Mr. Kushwaha is an accused in Uttar Pradesh’s Rs. 2,000-crore National Rural Health Mission scam. “Team Anna’s vocal silence on the issue and conscious ignoring of this shocking development when they don’t forget to react on trivial matters pertaining to Congress Party gives credence to the sentiment that their stance is more Anti- Congress than Anti Corruption,” Mr. Dutt said. This reaffirms the sentiment that the campaign is “totally politicised,” he stated.
Casting aspersions on the BJP’s opposition to the Lokpal Bill, Mr. Dutt said, “That the BJP can choose to stoop so low for petty electoral gain makes one wonder if its opposition to the Lokapl Bill was linked to its patronage of people like Babu Singh Kushwaha.”
