Veteran Gandhian and anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare on Friday rejected Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Adesh Gupta’s recent invitation to come and launch an agitation against the Aam Aadmi PartyGovernment along the lines of a Lokpal agitation he undertook in 2011.
Reacting to a statement issued recently by Gupta to the media inviting Hazare to co-operate with the BJP by coming to the national capital and launching an agitation like the Lokpal stir he had undertaken in 2011, Hazare said:,“I felt bad reading your letter. Your Bharatiya Janata Party has been ruling the country for the past six years. Your party has a maximum number of youths as members. Your party claims as the biggest party in the world that has a largest number of members”
“Anna Hazare is an 83-year-old man who lives in a 10 feet X 12 feet room located in a temple. He does not have money. Nor does he have property or power. It is rather unfortunate that you are calling such a man to launch an agitation in the national capital against the AAP government,” Hazare wrote in his letter.
“You have your government at the Centre. Many of the matters relating to the Delhi government come under the purview of your government. You have CBI, ED, Vigilance and the Delhi police are under your control. The Prime Minister repeatedly claims that the Centre is taking stringent steps to eliminate corruption in the country. That being the case, if it thinks that the Delhi government has indulged in corruption, why is the BJP-led government not acting against the Arvind Kejriwal government? Or is its claim of eliminating corruption failed,?, Hazare asked.
Maintaining that he had been crusading against corruption in the state and at the Centre during the last 22 years and undertaken 220 fasts during the period, Hazare said that he had undertaken the Lokpal agitation in 2011 as the people across the country were fed up with rampant corruption prevalent in the country. There was unrest in the country.
At such a juncture, Anna Hazare had undertaken the agitation. Realising that Anna Hazare was agitating for them, the people had taken to streets then. Subsequently, your government came to power at the Centre after promising corruption-free government”.
“But, after your party came to power at the Centre, the problems of people remain as before. What we are witnessing is one party blaming another party. I feel that a political party should indulge in self-introspection and speak about the faults within its own set up”.
“At this juncture, I do not see any political party capable of giving a good future to the people in the country. What we are witnessing a vicious cycle which is based on the premises power spawns money and money spawns power. Irrespective of which party is in power, you cannot expect a transformation as long as there is a change in the system. People will not get relief. That being the case, my coming to Delhi will not make much of a difference. That is my firm money,” Hazare said.