Thaindian News

New Delhi, Oct 18 (IANS) A team from Anna Hazare’s village Tuesday returned home from here after not being able to meet Rahul Gandhi despite an “appointment”, which the Congress leader’s office denied issuing.

It appeared to be a case of confusion confounded with the upset delegation from Ralegan Siddhi in Maharashtra saying that they no longer wanted to meet Gandhi.

Idukki MP P.T. Thomas said: “There was a communication gap in my office and for that I apologise to the sarpanch (village head) and other members coming from Ralegan Siddhi. There is no meeting scheduled for today (Tuesday).”

The three-member team, including social activist Hazare’s personal secretary Suresh Pathare and village sarpanch Jaisingh Rao Mapari, had reached the capital Monday.

They said they got a call from Thomas and Gandhi’s office confirming the appointment.

“We got an appointment call from offices of Thomas and Gandhi. Gandhi’s office even asked us details of people who will meet him. That’s why we have come. Now we don’t feel like meeting Gandhi,” Mapari said.

But both Thomas and Gandhi’s offices denied that any appointment was given to them.

“It is incorrect to say that we gave them an appointment. In fact, no one (from the office) called them. It is totally wrong to claim that Rahul Gandhi had invited them for a meeting,” an official at Gandhi’s office told IANS.

Congress leader and Law Minister Salman Khurshid said he did not know much about the incident, but Gandhi believes in dialogue.

“May be he (Gandhi) didn’t want this guy (team) to be treated an outcast as they broke ranks and came to meet Rahul Gandhi. What I understood the story to be is that they came on their own and Anna Hazare didn’t send them. Now it is Anna Hazare’s village and it would be unnecessary to create problems for people, that we want to talk to them and not Anna Hazare may have been in his (Gandhi) mind,” he said.

Thomas said that when he visited Ralegan Siddhi in September, the sarpanch and the deputy sarpanch had expressed their desire to meet Rahul Gandhi.

“They sent a letter to me Sep 10 requesting to arrange a meeting with Gandhi. No meeting was confirmed,” he added.

But Pathare said the meeting was to be facilitated by Thomas.

“We have come here without any political motives. When we came here we realised there were a lot of controversies around our visit. There seems to be a lot of ego problems. Now we do not want to meet Gandhi and we are going home now.

“Thomas’ office was continuously in touch with us and told us that they have fixed an appointment for 9 a.m. Oct 18,” he added.

Thomas had on Monday clarified that media reports about the meeting between Gandhi and Ralegan Siddhi villagers were “false” and “baseless”.