Cong: Bhagwat remark on Anna justifies our stance

A day after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat claimed that the Sangh had actively participated in Anna Hazare's anti-corruption agitation, the Congress on Friday hit back, saying the statement deflated social activist's assertions that his movement was non-partisan.

A day after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat claimed that the Sangh had actively participated in Anna Hazare's anti-corruption agitation, the Congress on Friday hit back, saying the statement deflated social activist's assertions that his movement was non-partisan.

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"Bhagwat's speech vindicates what I had been saying all along that the campaigns of Baba Ramdev and Anna Hazare have been planned, engineered and organised by the RSS….I still hold to it," said party general secretary Digvijaya Singh on his return from the US where he had gone for his wife's treatment.

Hazare, he said, should now accept the RSS involvement in his agitation since Bhagwat "has already admitted it".

But Hazare and his team members were quick to dismiss Bhagwat's claim. "Nobody approached me. Not a single RSS worker met me or approached me. How are they saying this? I don't know," he said in Ralegaon Siddhi.

Taking a jibe at Hazare, Digvijaya said: "Whenever I say that Anna's campaign was run by the RSS, he tells me that I should go to the mental asylum. Now after Bhagwat's assertions, I want to ask Anna do I still need to go to an asylum"

Echoing Digvijaya's views, Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said: "What is evident need not to be evidenced?"

Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal, however, denied all such accusations.