Parties giving RSS slant to smear me: Anna Hazare

Pune: Veteran anti-graft activist Anna Hazare on Thursday alleged that some parties were trying to smear his reputation and target his movement by linking it with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Mr. Hazare said there were some reports in the media recently that an activist Kalpana Inamdar, who was part of his new core committee before his indefinite hunger strike on March 23, was a relative of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse.

“Several new activists were chosen from different parts of the country to be part of my core committee… Ms. Inamdar was one of them. However, some articles reportedly said she was a relative of Godse and that I had entrusted the reins of my agitation to her,” said Mr. Hazare. He clarified that Ms. Inamdar, was only managing the stage at the start of his hunger strike at Ramlila Maidan.

“Neither I nor my agitation for the demand of Jan Lokpal have had any ties with the Sangh. Yet, through local media, my agitation is being given an RSS slant by falsely linking Kalpana Inamdar with the Sangh and Nathuram Godse. In fact, I was not even acquainted with Ms. Inamdar prior to my latest agitation,” he said, adding, however, that he was “not perturbed at the smear campaign against him.”

Without naming anybody, Mr. Hazare hinted that the allegations were perpetrated by both ruling and opposition parties whose feathers, the octogenarian crusader claimed to have ruffled with his movement demanding a Jan Lokpal.

Mr. Hazare said he was in consultation with his lawyers and was soon planning to file a defamation suit against some parties in the Bombay High Court.

Mr. Hazare’s week-long ‘indefinite’ strike at the Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi witnessed a noticeable decline in participation as against 2011. Mr. Hazare, however, stressed that his movement had exposed the corruption of several leaders within the ruling and opposition parties.“There is this conspiracy to taint me for links to the RSS. For several decades, I have steered clear of any party or individual and have thought only for the welfare of society,” he said.