Levelling corruption charges on the Prime Minister recently seems to be creating ripples within Team Anna.
Veteran social activist, Mr Anna Hazare, who has on several occasions vouched for the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan's Singh's personal integrity, seemed to have some reservations on the issue on Tuesday.
“If the contents (of the charges) are known to me and if the content indicates the involvement of the particular Ministers and acceptable to me, then I will go with them,” he said in Maharashtra. However, he said he was not breaking away from the anti-graft coalition which has been dubbed ‘Team Anna' in the media.
Another key member, Mr Justice Santosh Hegde, also seemed to distance himself on the corruption charges against Dr Singh and 14 Cabinet Ministers. In Bangalore, Mr Hegde said he was not party to the decision.
Meanwhile, responding to queries on whether Mr Hazare was aware of their charges again the Prime Minister, senior lawyer, Mr Prashant Bhushan, said most of the documents were in English and Mr Hazare cannot read the language.
“So, these large number of documents have to be translated into Hindi to enable him to go through them. It is not possible to translate all these documents that fast so that he can read it. He (Mr Hazare) knew the larger points like which Minister has what charges against him,” Mr Bhushan said at a press conference in Kausambi near Delhi.
He admitted that “on the Prime Minister, he did not know the whole matter. But he has full faith in us that we are doing the right thing, and that a panel has vetted it.”
On Tuesday, responding to a letter written by the External Affairs Minister, Mr S.M. Krishna, to Team Anna, Mr Bhushan released certain documents related to de-reservation of forest land in Karnataka. He said the Minister's contention that the Supreme Court had ordered a stay into the investigations did not in any way detract from the need for an independent investigation.