A day after Team Anna rejoiced over the defeat of the Congress in Hisar by-poll, it seems to be heading towards a crisis with two members of the core committee having resigned in protest against the team getting into “party politics'' and Anna Hazare's veiled criticism of colleague Prashant Bhushan in a fresh entry on the Kashmir plebiscite issue on his blog.
Core committee member P.V. Rajagopal of Ekta Parishad announced he was quitting, in writing, on the plea that he was pre-occupied with conducting tribal yatras in 350 districts on the land acquisition issue. Another member, ‘Waterman' Rajinder Singh from Rajasthan conveyed his decision to dissociate himself from the core committee to Arvind Kejriwal on telephone.
“This matter was not discussed in the core committee. I feel the team should have waited till after the winter session of Parliament when the Lokpal Bill is to be introduced, instead of mortgaging the movement to a single seat in Hisar,'' Mr. Singh told The Hindu. The core committee comprises 25 well-known members of the civil society
On the other hand, even while maintaining a vow of silence Mr. Hazare continues to remain active on his blog. In what is seen as his criticism of Mr. Bhushan's opinion to hold a plebiscite in Kashmir, Mr. Hazare noted the State was an integral part of India, and that “some people” talk incoherent things, and do nothing for the ground reality in Kashmir.
“Some people talk incoherent things about Kashmir-related issues but they are unaware of the fact that when I was in the Army I had taken active part in the India-Pakistan war as a soldier…This is my active conviction that Kashmir is an integral part of India and will remain so. Today once again if I have to, am ready to take part in war against Pakistan,'' he wrote on his blog.
Earlier, ruling out the possibility of Mr. Bhushan being asked to quit the team, Mr. Hazare and Mr. Kejriwal had maintained that Mr. Bhushan's opinion was his own. The lawyer is presently out of the country.
