Team Anna 2.0: Activists get call

Anna's own NGO to run things now, mum on Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi

ANNA Hazare's new "advisory team" will have about 35-40 members and will comprise prominent social activists from across the country. A decision in this regard was approved at the annual meeting of Hazare's Bhrashtachar Virodhi Jan Andolan (BVJA) in Ralegan Siddhi on Sunday.

Hazare kept mum on whether old associates Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi will be part of this new team. However, according to those who attended the meeting, members from erstwhile Team Anna who wish to continue with the apolitical movement rather than forming a political party would be invited to join the new team.

BVJA secretary Alauddin Sheikh said a decision had also been taken not to support any candidate belonging to any political party. "During the coming elections, the movement will support only Independent candidates. Nobody from any political party would get support as he or she would only listen to their political masters."

In another signal that he was distancing himself from Kejriwal and company, Hazare's blogpost on Sunday gave the address of his NGO BVJA in Ralegan Siddhi as the contact point for those who wanted to be associated with his movement. So far, since its inception in November 2010, Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia's Public Cause Research Foundation had functioned as the secretariat of India Against Corruption.

Hazare said the new "advisory team" would provide an ideological path to the movement, and it would be carried forward by "BVJA volunteers" in the state and country. While the BVJA has a well-established network in Maharashtra, the plan is to spread it across the country, starting with over 200 new volunteers. Hazare reiterated his apolitical stance, telling reporters: "We will not form any political party but will work to give an alternative to the people." In his blog, he wrote that "politics will not deliver a better future" and emphasised that the character of the movement should shift from targeting government and focus on ensuring that good people enter Parliament.

... contd.

ALSO READ

Delhi nursing graduate loses eye in acid attack at Bandra station

Worry and anger in Mumbai police after R R Patil snatches right to promote

MNS student wing demands question papers in Marathi

UN rapporteur comes calling, lends an ear to Ishrat's mother