Fight against corrupt politicos to be revived soon: Arvind Kejriwal

[1]

Alleging there are 16 ‘corrupt’ ministers in the Union Cabinet, key Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said the fight against such politicians would be revived soon by exposing them.

"There are 16 corrupt ministers in the Union cabinet. We plan to hold a few press conferences in the last week of this month to expose these ministers," Kejriwal said.

He was addressing over 300 members of India Against Corruption (IAC) at Billawar Association Auditorium in suburban Santacruz here on Friday. Kejriwal also said that Anna Hazare's next course of action over the Lokpal Bill would be decided once the Parliament's Budget Session concludes.

Blaming the media for the anti-corruption campaign gradually losing steam, he said in the race for TRP ratings, the media had initially covered Anna's agitation, but later ‘tried to kill the movement’.

"Immediately after the agitation, Team Anna was targeted and was given anti-publicity. A fake CD related to Prashant Bhushan was run and that too without proper verification. Kiran Bedi and I were also criticised over a few issues," he said.

He added that there are some good people in journalism, but they were also ‘influenced’. "Every week, the editors were called and meetings were held, where the government advises the media-people as what is to be done, which is later followed by the media," he alleged. Kejriwal also said that there is a need to strengthen the network of people to put up an aggressive fight over the Lokpal Bill.

"There is a need to strengthen the network among Anna supporters. An Anna sms card has started sometime back. Supporters buying the card, would be kept informed about Anna's movement, which ensures that the anger against corruption continues to fire up in the minds of the activists," he said.

He also made an appeal to the activists to create Anna Charcha Samuh (Anna discussion groups) to hold discussions at the local level so that the activists can understand various issues raised by Team Anna.

"There are many people who are participating in the agitation, but they are yet to understand the Lokpal bill properly. I appeal to people to hold discussions at their local level, which will help them figure out various issues. They can also send us suggestions and feed back," he said.

"Only when we understand the issues, a revolution can be brought," he added.

Kejriwal urged the activists not to mix up any local issues with that of Lokpal and focus on the bill. "If you want, you can involve yourself in solving local issues, but you should not divert your mind from Lokpal. Your primary focus should be Lokpal," Kejriwal said.

As part of strengthening the communication among the Anna supporters, IAC has decided to start a monthly newsletter 'IAC News', which will be circulated among Hazare's supporters as well as common people free of cost.

The eight-page newsletter in Hindi will inform and elaborate the activities and views of the Anna and his supporters.

The newsletter, which will be started by April 21 and there will be 10,000 copies published initially, an IAC member said adding that they had set the target to publish 50,000 copies.

If the demand surges for the newsletter, then it would also be made weekly, the member added.