President bid fuel in Anna fire Digvijaya spies BJP trap for activist SANJAY K. JHA
New Delhi, Oct. 9: Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh has suggested that the BJP has led Anna Hazare to believe it will support him to become President of the country next year, attaching a motive aimed at chipping away at the activist’s apolitical image. “Hazare has been made to believe that he would be supported for the President’s post in 2012 by all the non-Congress forces. More than other parties, it is the BJP that is misleading Annaji. He is a good man and he should not fall in this trap,” Digvijaya told The Telegraph today, nuancing his statement and taking care not to attack Hazare directly. Digvijaya, however, insisted that he “heard this from his own sources and this was not his party’s opinion”. The statement on a presidential bid is certain to rile the Hazare camp that has zealously guarded its apolitical image and strictly maintained that it opposed the Congress only because of the Jan Lokpal Bill. Hazare, too, has steadfastly denied that he had any personal ambition and repeatedly declared that he would hold no post in the future. Although most Congress leaders believe that Hazare was playing into the hands of the Sangh parivar, and that his team members had a distinct anti-Congress bias, nobody has so far talked of the BJP’s plan to project him as the next presidential candidate. Pratibha Patil will complete her term in the Rashtrapati Bhavan in July 2012. The Congress will not accept Hazare’s candidature under any circumstance and it is expected to field a party veteran if Vice-President Hamid Ansari is not picked for elevation. Asked for a response to Digvijaya’s statement, a senior Congress functionary said: “We do not reject this possibility but we have so far not heard it from any credible source. We will formulate our response once we get confirmed news but it is a free country and anybody can aspire to be President or Prime Minister.” Many other Congress leaders felt Digvijaya could be right — a perception strengthened by the RSS’s open endorsement of the Hazare campaign. Digvijaya has often mustered the courage to speak up on issues that other Congressmen skirt and this has landed him in trouble. It was Digvijaya who emphatically talked about Hazare’s RSS links, prompting the anti-corruption crusader to declare him fit for a mental asylum. The strong response from Hazare triggered a slander campaign against Digvijaya on social networking sites, forcing him to lodge a complaint with police. Although the Hazare group’s open campaign against the Congress in the Hissar bypoll in Haryana prompted some Congress leaders to question his apolitical credentials, his aides asserted that the opposition was based solely on the party’s attitude towards the Jan Lokpal bill. The Hazare group wanted written assurances from every party on support to the Jan Lokpal bill, which was provided by the BJP, Om Prakash Chautala’s INLD and the late Bhajan Lal’s Haryana Vikash Manch. Congress leaders feel that the Hazare group has now demonstrated its political bias as there is little to choose between the candidates of Hissar on the corruption plank and the future strategy will have to be fashioned keeping this in mind. However, as usual, the Congress is in a dilemma. While one section wants to take the bull by the horns, others feel the Hazare group has embarked on a self-destructive course and it is better to wait for such an eventuality to unfold. One Congress leader said: “We have to engage them in conversation, provoke them. The truth will come out. Hazare has shown a tendency of being soft on the BJP. He has been very careful while speaking about Narendra Modi, he has not attacked corrupt leaders of the BJP and he has never expressed his disapproval of the RSS. We cannot let him continue with this duplicity.” But a Congress leader belonging to the other section said: “We know he has been friendly with RSS leaders. We know his reactionary instincts and intolerance. His team’s antics and his own statements are enough to expose the truth. Why should we directly engage with him in a tit-for-tat battle?” http://telegraphindia.com/1111010/jsp/nation/story_14605255.jsp
