Anna Hazare broke promise by fasting: Salman Khurshid

Bangalore, Aug 3: Union Law Minister

has written in

about how

, who is currently leading a crusade against

, had promised not to observe a fast on Jul 25 and Aug 9. The magazine has carried a blow by blow account of his meeting with the Gandhian on Jun 23.

At the very outset, the minister says that he met Hazare just because both of them "shared similar sentiments on the Lokpal issue." According to Khurshid, the latter not only denied having ever sought the dismissal of Congress ministers in Maharashtra, Hazare also "praised" the state's chief minister Prithviraj Chavan.

"When I expressed doubts about the intentions of his colleagues, he said he knew of their shortcomings but had no choice because the movement would be damaged. But if they did something very wrong, he was prepared to desert them. He specifically said Kiran Bedi has full faith in him and would listen to him and that Justice Santosh Hegde was very reasonable and good," Khurshid recounts.

Next comes the most interesting bit. Hazare supposedly told the minister that yoga guru Baba Ramdev was using his name even though "their agendas were entirely different."

Khurshid then writes that Hazare wanted to keep their meeting a secret from members of Team Anna. "He said there was nothing wrong in saying an untruth for the good of the country. I think he relied on some allusion to Gandhiji. He also said that Gandhiji had said that you cannot always get complete satisfaction in an andolan and should be happy with the substantial success," Khurshid adds.

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