Thaindian News

New Delhi, Oct 28 (IANS) Several prominent members of India Against Corruption (IAC), including N. Santosh Hegde, Medha Patkar and Anna Hazare himself, will be absent from the forum’s crucial core committee meeting near here Saturday as yet another key member, Kumar Vishwas, has demanded a new panel be set up.

The meeting comes in the wake of allegations of financial impropriety against IAC members Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi and the attack on another member, Prashant Bhushan, by right-wing activists over his comment suggesting a plebiscite on the Kashmir issue.

The meeting, being watched keenly in political circles, would begin at the office of the Public Cause Research Foundation — a trust run by Kejriwal — in suburban Ghaziabad town at 11 a.m., said an IAC spokesperson.

The meeting will discuss the “smear campaign against the movement”, she added.

Five members — Hazare, Hegde, Patkar, Kumar Vishwas and Devinder Sharma — have informed they would not attend, the spokesperson said.

Two others — Gandhian activist P.V. Rajagopal and Magsaysay Award winner Rajendra Singh — resigned recently protesting “politicisation of the movement” by Kejriwal.

Patkar told TV channels that she would not be attending the meeting, but hoped it would discuss the crucial issues. “An overhauling (of the core committee) is necessary,” she said.

Hedge, a former Supreme Court judge and former Karnataka Lokayukta, told reporters in Bangalore Friday he would not attend the meet as he has some personal engagements in Mumbai.

“I don’t think Anna’s strength lies in the core committee or people’s honesty in the core committee. Anna’s strength lies in the common man’s fight against corruption…That’s his strength, it’s not a few people in the core committee,” Hegde said.

“I am not out of Team Anna, with a rider that my commitment to Team Anna is in regard to a strong Lokpal bill and fight against corruption. Beyond that, I am not with anybody,” said Hegde, who had criticised the political turn the movement took when Kejriwal led an anti-Congress campaign in the Hisar Lok Sabha seat bypoll.

Hazare, who is in his village Ralegan-Siddhi and has undertaken a vow of silence since Oct 16, will also not be attending, an aide had told the media in the village.

Meanwhile, Kumar Vishwas, an active member of the core committee, Friday urged Hazare to re-organise the committee to give it a new look.

In a letter sent to Hazare, Vishwas said that the Congress is trying to discredit members of the core committee.

“Such attacks and the subsequent clarifications will strengthen the conspiracy to divert the attention from the key issues. I request you to give greater representation to the core committee consisting of limited members,” he said in the letter, a copy of which was released to the media.

Several Team Anna leaders have courted controversy recently.

Kejriwal faced an Income Tax department notice and Rs.9.27 lakh claim for unauthorised absence before his leaving the Indian Revenue Service in 2006. The department has threatened attachment of property and prosecution against Kejriwal in case of non-payment of teh dues.

Media reports recently exposed Kiran Bedi, a former police official, of claiming inflated travel bills when invited to seminars, meetings and lectures. Though Bedi initially defended her action saying that the excess money went to public causes of her NGOs, she later announced she would refund of the extra amounts.

Prashant Bhushan was attacked by right-wing activists for his suggestion for a plebiscite on the Kashmir issue. Hazare, who initially said that the committee would take a decision on the statement, later on his blog criticised Bhushan.

An ex-soldier who participated in the 1965 India-Pakistan war, Hazare said at 74, he was ready to take part in another war to defend Kashmir.

Meanwhile, the core committee is also likely to announce the schedule of publication of accounts of donations received during Hazare’s Ramlila grounds fast.

However, Swami Agnivesh, a founder leader of the IAC who has now parted ways, told IANS this was “a delayed action coming after public criticism and pressure from Hazare”.

Meanwhile, Bedi said there were “100 percent moves for victimisation” of the Team Anna leaders.

But the activists were not bothered and an early passage of the anti-graft Jan Lokpal bill was only their concern, she added.