Team Anna is losing its sheen on morality at a time when Parliament has to take a view on the Lokpal Bill during the current session.
If Mr Anna Hazare’s recent comment on the attack on Union minister Sharad Pawar has not gone down well across the country, when he said “sirf ek thappad (only one slap?)”, Mr Arvind Kejriwal and Ms Kiran Bedi have lost their appeal because of the recent developments.
While Mr Kejriwal is facing protests (Nagpur, Lucknow) after receiving income-tax notice for clearing dues, a Delhi court on Saturday ordered lodging of an FIR against Ms Bedi for allegedly misappropriating funds meant for her NGOs. Mr Prashant Bhushan was beaten up in his chamber in New Delhi for openly supporting the demand for plebiscite in Kashmir a few weeks ago.
Meanwhile, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh on Saturday accused Mr Hazare of provoking violence, in an apparent reference to his reaction over the attack on Mr Pawar. In two of his posts on Twitter, Mr Singh said, “Anna “Gandhian” — Provokes Violence. Bedi “X Cop” — Urges People to break Law. Kejriwal “X IRS” — Returns Donations to Anonymous. “Shanti Bhushan “X Law Minister” — Promises to fix Judges. Pranab Da How right you are ! Where is our Country going.” Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had condemned the incident immediately, wondering “I don’t know where the country is going.”
In another tweet on Friday, Mr Singh had wondered whether there was a connect between the statement of BJP leader Yashwant Sinha that rising prices could lead to violence and Mr Hazare’s remark of “only one slap” over the assault on Mr Pawar. “Strongly condemn cowardly attack on Sharad Pawarji. Yashwant Sinha’s statement, this incident, Anna’s reaction. Is there a connect?
“Never expected Anna to react the way he did to Sharad Pawar incident. It certainly was not a Gandhian reaction,” Mr Singh had said.
In two more tweets, the AICC general secretary had continued the argument.
“Tie up people and beat them up if they drink liquor, send people to mental asylum whom you don’t agree, hang people without trial.
“Are we moving into a fascist mode? Throw rose petals on police officers accused in false encounter, beat up people whom you don’t agree with,” he had said.