Arvind Kejriwal today described Anna Hazare’s decision to snap ties with the pro-politics group in the anti-corruption movement as “shocking and unbelievable” and said the veteran activist’s principles will be the foundation of their party.
“We respect Anna Hazare, he is our guru and father. Yesterday’s developments came as a complete surprise. It was shocking, unbelievable, unfortunate and sad,” Kejriwal told presspersons here after a meeting with some of his supporters to chalk out the next course of action.
Hazare yesterday announced the split with the Kejriwal-led group, which is going ahead with its plan to form a party, saying they should not use his name or photo for the outfit they are planning to launch.
“Anna’s photograph and name are printed in our hearts. We will continue to take his blessings and touch his feet. Anna’s five principles will become the foundation of our party,” Kejriwal said.
Responding to Hazare’s remarks that he does not go by a survey conducted through social networking sites, he claimed that it was the veteran activist who asked them to conduct a survey on whether to form a party or not.
“Anna had asked us to do the survey. Using SMS and Internet was his idea,” he said.
Claiming that there is a sense of urgency to change the system, he said the country was on “sale and everything is being sold out. We have challenges as well as opportunities. In our view both Congress and BJP are the same.”
Meanwhile, Kejriwal supporters took potshots at Hazare on social networking sites such as Twitter, posts which were retweeted by India Against Corruption.
One tweet read, “Anna made people aware about corruption, but doesn’t say what to do with that awareness, Going political is only logical step” while another said, “need to change the script now! Let People write the script and not few who are disconnected from people.”
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.