Anna Hazare writes to Sonia about "character assassination"

New Delhi, Jun 13: Hurt by the "character assassination" done by various Congress leaders, Anna Hazare shot a letter to Sonia Gandhi asking her to make public any evidence her party-members have about his alleged involvement with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

In a three-page letter to the Congress President, Anna said that such remarks from her party leaders were part of a strategy to defame him weaning off public support for his battle against corruption.

In the letter, Hazare wrote, "I request you to ensure that responsible leaders from your party should not resort to character assassination and mislead people on the Jan Lokpal Bill. If the Congress party has any concrete evidence (to prove the allegations), please make it public."

The letter came in the aftermath of Congress General Secretary Janardhan Dwivedi's statement calling Hazare as a "mask" of the BJP, while other leaders from the party attacked the civil society on the Lokpal Bill.

In the letter to the Congress President, a peeved Anna Hazare, said, "If the responsible leaders in the party and government resort to spreading lies, it is not good for the future of the country. Many senior leaders in your party have said that I am a mask of BJP and RSS. In the 73 years of my life, I have never gone close to any party or front because there is corruption everywhere."

To press his claim of having no association with the BJP or the RSS, he wrote, "Had I been associated with BJP, I would not have talked about such things."

It can be recalled that a few days ago, Anna Hazare had criticised the Narendra Modi government in Gujarat on issues of corruption.

He also wrote, "It appears that the smear campaign is to ensure that civil society members become disillusioned and leave the committee. We are hearing that some people are after Arvind Kejriwal to find out about his assets. But they were not successful as he does not possess illegal assets."

With the Congress declaring an all-out offensive against the Civil society and even senior party leader joining the chorus, it has now become interesting to see how the government and indeed the Congress react to Anna's letter.

OneIndia News