As Anna Hazare’s fast entered the 10th day today, his team accused “some strong elements” in the Government of nullifying the entire dialogue process and said they have become victims of Congress’ “internal politics’’.
Stating that they were ready to hold talks in an “honest and sincere manner”, Team Anna alleged that the Home Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, and the HRD Minister, Mr Kapil Sibal, were taking a strong stand forcing the Government not to enter into a compromise with them on the Lokpal Bill.
“It appears that there are some strong elements in the government who want to nullify the entire dialogue process...
We were told that in CCPA (Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs) meeting, especially Chidambaram and Sibal, were completely opposed to any kind of agreement or any kind of dialogue,” activist Mr Arvind Kejriwal told reporters here.
“We are becoming victims of Congress’ internal politics.
Day before yesterday, the talks were positive, but in the CCPA meeting, Mr Salman Khurshid told us that there was a lot of fighting. Chidambaram and Sibal said there should be no dialogue with us and we should be tackled with a tough hand,” he alleged.
The accusation came after late night talks between the two sides ended in a deadlock with both sides failing to resolve the key issues, prompting the civil society to declare that they were “back to square one’’.
Mr Kejriwal said if the CCPA and the Government can “ignore” the views of a senior leader like the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, the chief government negotiator, then the question is that whom should they talk to?
“We will talk to the government,” another Team Anna member Mr Prashant Bhushan said.
Activist Ms Kiran Bedi asked: “who should we talk to? Who is in control? We can talk only if there is somebody who is capable of making decisions. Who will take the decisions? Today in this country, who do we speak to?”
The Law Minister, Mr Salman Khurshid, said the Government was willing to talk.
“The Government is willing to talk. We have opened the path. If they want to talk, they can talk,” Mr Khurshid said.
Reacting to Ms Bedi’s comments, he said, “We were talking to them. If they have doubts, find somebody else.”
After examining Mr Hazare this morning, Dr Naresh Trehan said it was a matter of concern that the Gandhian was fasting for the past 10 days.
“There is stability in his blood pressure and heart beat.
He is taking rest. His ketone levels had come down. It is a matter of concern that for the past 10 days, he is fasting and he has not eaten anything,” Dr Trehan said.
The Core Committee of Team Anna also met here this morning to finalise the next course of action.
The virtual breakdown in talks last night led to sparring between the two sides with Mr Hazare apprehending that he would be forcibly arrested and removed from the fast site and gave a call for ‘Chalo Delhi’ and gherao of Parliament and MPs.
Government’s chief negotiator, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, sought to reject the claims of team Anna representatives, saying they were “distorting” the facts on discussions.
Upset at the lack of progress, Mr Hazare’s three representatives — Arvind Kejriwal, Prashant Bhushan and Kiran Bedi — said that after another round of talks with Government interlocutors headed by Mr Pranab Mukherjee, difference between Government’s attitude yesterday and today was marked like “day and night”. Ms Bedi said: “Yesterday, the sense of urgency to break Anna’s fast in government talks was totally missing compared to the evening earlier.”
She claimed that internal politics was coming in the way of talks. “Same persons who designed government Lokpal Bill are reportedly behind it. No one to rein them?”
She said corrupt politicians will sabotage Jan Lokpal bill. “They see it as a graveyard. For, we the people, it (Jan Lokpal Bill) is a ray of hope.”