Seeking to put Team Anna members on the backfoot, the Gandhian's former blogger Raju Parulekar has accused a 'gang of four' in Anna Hazare's core team of using the activist as a demi-god to further their interests and hold government to 'ransom'.
Parulekar, who fell out with Hazare after the latter publicly snubbed him on the issue of restructuring of Core Committee, alleged that Team Anna members Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi, Prashant Bhushan and Manish Sisodia had 'free reigns' and had free run in media by becoming 'experts' on various subjects which gave them also the 'stature of being virtuous and demi-gods'.
He sought answers from Hazare as to who 'pressurised' him not to show the door to Bhushan from the Core team for his controversial comments on plebiscite in Kashmir, saying who will understand the legal loopholes in the bill and whether he was aware of the financial transactions of Kejriwal and Sisodia and their 'ambitions'.
He also questioned the entire Jan Lokpal bill movement in his blog posting late last night to put his side of the story claiming that he had not manipulated Hazare's blog postings. He said the 'disillusioned' countrymen have misled to believe that this self-centered movement will 'create heaven for them' and a stricter Janlokpal Bill (law) can abolish more than 50 per cent of corruption from their life.
"...truth lies somewhere else," he said, adding "this bunch of 20-plus people and 'gang of four' among them take the country for a ride and hold the government for ransom...are we going to place our country in the hands of these four-five people and their salaried gang members? ". "How difficult will it be for the agitation to sustain and pull ahead alone on Anna Hazare’s moral strength? Which direction it is heading to? Are any of us Indians familiar with the other members of Team Anna except for Bhushan father-son-duo, Bedi, Sisodia and Kejriwal? Who has selected these 21 people to represent the 120 crore people in India?" he asked.
The only difference between parties and Team Anna was the moral authority wielded by Hazare because of which 20-plus people including ‘Gang of four’ enjoy privilege of being called ‘patriots’ and whole political class bow at their feet with "sheer guilt of their absolute corruption..." Parulekar, who also released a letter he wrote but did not sent to Hazare, said there is no movement on the ground to bring systemic change and the present fight for Jan Lokpal Bill if enacted will mean "another opportunity for corruption".
On the controversial letter by Hazare on restructuring Team Anna which was made public by him, Parulekar said Hazare has cast aspersions on his honesty and integrity but he felt that it was not the Gandhian's words but those of somebody else, "dangerous, wicked, self-centered and in real-sense enemy of the people of country called India."
He claimed that the October 30 meeting in Ralegan Siddhi was stormy and Hazare contradicted Kejriwal and others. "I have shown Annaji's handwritten and signed letter for re-structuring ‘Team Anna’ to the trio. They were shaken but remained arrogant. Kejriwal said, ‘we ‘Team Anna’ have decided in Kosambi that the ‘team’ will remain so hence the letter is insignificant.’ He went on to claim that to re-structure ‘Team Anna’ will harm Janlokpal issue. Annaji wrote on a piece of paper, ‘how come re-structuring and Janlokpal bill issue is contradictory?’ Annaji’s reaction was all the more explosive," he said.
Parulekar claimed that Bhushan mocked at Hazare asking what he knew about Chinese history as he spoke about a 'gang of four' in government targeting Team Anna. Parulekar also alleged that Kumar Vishwas' letter seeking disbanding of the team was "orchestrated" by Kejriwal and others.
"The moment I announced to the media your plans of bringing about changes in ‘Team Anna’ at the earliest, Kumar Vishwas suddenly appeared from Gaziabad and started reading and explaining the letter that was meant to be a ‘secret’," he said. He also questioned why the donations for Hazare agitation was deposited in the trust held jointly by Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia and why it was were not deposited in Ralegansiddhi's trust account.
"Swami Ramdev, Shri Shri, Medha Patkar, Rajendra Singhji and even Hegde sahib distanced themselves from the movement. Though they do not publicly disown the movement they are hurt within which is absolutely visible," he claimed.