PM, Khurshid vow strong lokpal, team Hazare unmoved

Anna Hazare's campaign for a strong anti-corruption lokpal bill seems to have turned the Congress party and its government somewhat schizophrenic. Amid team Anna's campaign urging people to vote against the Congress in the upcoming Hisar by-elections in Haryana, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself wrote to Hazare saying his government is committed to tabling a strong lokpal bill in the near future.

But at the same time, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh – the party's most vocal spokesman – announced that he will go public today with ''proof'' of the Hazare movement being linked with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a Hindu supremacy outfit.

Digvijay Singh had earlier made the charge that the movement had strong associations with the RSS, affiliated to the opposition Bharatiya Janata party.

He has gone so far as to allege that Hazare is aiming to become India's president with BJP support.

Hazare and his team on the other hand have asserted that their anti-Congress campaign has no political motivation, and if it benefits any opposition party it is purely incidental. They insisted again today that they were anti-Congress purely because it was procrastinating on creating a lokpal bill.

Responding to Hazare's letter of 21 September in which he had highlighted several issues including creation of a lokpal, electoral reforms (with a citizens' right to 'de-elect' legislators) and strengthening of grassroots institutions such as panchayats, the prime minister assured him that the government was working on a comprehensive agenda to fight corruption, including creation of a lokpal.