‘How did Team Anna members get Magsaysay?’
Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid on Sunday angrily retorted to Team Anna member Kiran Bedi’s comments on Twitter on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Bedi compared the Prime Minister to Mahabharat character Dhritarashtra over his PM’s alleged role in coal block allocations for which Team Anna has been demanding a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe.
Stating that Team Anna were hypocritical about their demands, Khurshid said, “They (Team Anna) never ask for probe against themselves. We are at least subject to public scrutiny every five years when we go to election... We are ready for any public scrutiny”.
He alleged that “Every time an honest question is asked about their activities...They (Team Anna) start screaming or shouting”.
Khurshid also felt that Team Anna, instead of continuing with its anti-corruption platform, were converting it into a personal campaign. “We all felt that they started off with a good idea - the idea of containing corruption or questioning corruption. But now they are doing greatest disservice to this idea by converting it into a personal campaign and personal ambition,” he said. In Hyderabad, Khurshid’s cabinet colleague, Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi took a more strident stand, raising questions about Team Anna’s societal contributions for getting the Magsaysay Award.
“The group of Anna Hazare, the so-called crusader against corruption, they are
making all kinds of wild statements against the Prime Minister which they could not substantiate, which they could not do anything. We suspect and I suspect that Anna and his people are not that innocent and every one of them go to the Magsaysay Award which has been funded by American foundations,” Ravi said. He asked, “How Anna Hazare, Kiran Bedi and this Kejriwal - all three got this award. What is their contribution? What is their contribution to get a prestigious award.