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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Nepotism cry in Anna camp

Nepotism cry in Anna camp

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published Published on Apr 10, 2011   modified Modified on Apr 10, 2011
On their “day of victory”, leaders of Anna Hazare’s movement faced nepotism charges over the inclusion of the father-son duo of lawyers Shanti and Prashant Bhushan in the joint drafting committee for the Lok Pal Bill.

Many protesters refused to break their fast when Hazare broke his at 10.45am. They wanted to know why ex-cop Kiran Bedi wasn’t picked while both the Bhushans were in.

“This is nepotism. Why is there no woman in this committee?” said activist Nirmala Sharma. Yoga guru Ramdev, an initial star of the protest, too asked why both father and son figured among the five Hazare nominees in the 10-member panel.

Asked by reporters, Hazare merely said: “There is nothing wrong in having two members of a family.... There is no nepotism.”

Some agitators, who had castigated dynastic rule for the past four days, got into an argument with Swami Agnivesh, RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal and Medha Patkar, whom Hazare had left behind to face the people.

“You kept us in the dark.... Why two members from the same family?” an agitator asked.

Agnivesh said Bedi did not want to be on the panel. He explained that three of the five government nominees — ministers P. Chidambaram, Salman Khurshid and Kapil Sibal — were “big lawyers”.

“We needed equally strong lawyers to shut them up at the meetings. It’s only a coincidence that they are father and son,” he said.

Prashant Bhushan told The Telegraph he would have preferred to stay out but “Hazare and Kejriwal insisted on my father and I being part of it. I wanted it to be more broad-based (with) retired judges (and) activists.”

Some activists who have stayed away from the movement too have begun expressing doubts about the “politics of blackmail”.

“The media turned this into mass hysteria for their own ends. I am waiting for sanity to return to have a more nuanced analysis of the movement and its implications,” an eminent activist said.

The political class, worried and angered by the protesters’ anti-politician tirade, appears intent on closing ranks to take on the social activists in the coming days. Key Opposition leaders have shed their initial glee at the government’s discomfiture and are backing the Centre to take a stand against “unreasonable” demands from the activists.

The Telegraph, 10 April, 2011, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110410/jsp/frontpage/story_13835024.jsp


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