At a time when his anti-graft team needed a lot of talking to defend themselves against charges of financial misconduct, Gandhian Anna Hazare on Thursday announced that he would extend his “maun vrat” (vow of silence), as talking to people leaves him “very weak”.
Mr Hazare’s decision to continue with his vow of silence, which he began on October 16, will mean that he may not be attending his team’s core committee meeting scheduled for Saturday in the national capital. The meeting is expected to take up issues relating to controversies around key team-Anna members including Prashant Bhushan, Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi.
Interestingly, Mr Hazare’s decision to extend his “maun vrat” has also come on a day when Congress leader Digvijay Singh sharpened his attack against the anti-graft crusader alleging that all, including his, yoga guru Ramdev’s and Sri Sri Ravishakar’s anti-corruption agitations were part of an all pervasive RSS-BJP game plan to divert attention from right-wing terror.
Announcing the decision to extend his vow of silence on his latest blog post, Mr Hazare said, “My health still does not permit me to give up my maun vrat. There is still some swelling on my feet and the knee troubles me a lot. Maun vrat helps me heal my body from within and outside. Verbal communication with people is an exertion for me leaving me very weak.”
Team Anna has been on the backfoot with Ms Bedi battling charges of overcharging her hosts by inflating travel bills and Mr Kejriwal being accused of depositing donations collected for Hazare agitation against corruption in a trust run by him.