Someone else is funding campaign for Hazare: Sibal

At a time when Anna Hazare's arrest created a national storm, HRD minister Kapil Sibal stirred things up by questioning the source of the money used to run an "orchestrated" campaign against the government. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Aug 17, 2011, 24:31:55 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

On the day Anna Hazare's arrested created a national storm HRD minister Kapil Sibal fired a fresh salvo at Team Anna asking from where the money has come to run an "orchestrated" campaign against the government.

It was after Sibal had to face slogan shouting from youth wing of Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) demanding release of Hazare at a seminar on lokpal bill, which was attended by three Delhi Congress MLAs and a former Delhi minister Mangat Ram Singhal.

The Congress workers in the audience swung into action and threw the protestors out of Malvankar Hall and started shouting slogans in favour of Sibal, who then asked them to restrain. "It is not a political function but an academic discussion," the minister, who was government nominee in the joint drafting committee on lokpal bill, said.

Making a detailed presentation on why Team Anna's protest against the government's lokpal bill was unconstitutional the minister accused Hazare of running an organized campaign.

"Crore of rupees have been spent on SMS…t-shirts have been distributed…regional channels are running 15 minute capsule of Hazare. You should know that someone else is funding the entire campaign," the minister said.

Adding a political motive behind Hazare's campaign, Sibal said some political parties, who wanted to destabilize the government, were supporting him without naming any party.

The minister also made it clear that the government was with Hazare on fight against corruption but differed on the way the protest was being organized. "One has to respect restrictions imposed by police as other citizens have equal fundamental rights as the protesters," he said.

He also took a jibe at the media saying that only Team Anna's view was being portrayed whereas that of other civil society activists such as Aruna Roy and JS Verma on lokpal bill did not find adequate space.

The seminar held under the banner of little known Jai Shree Society on Education had Delhi University Vice-Chancellor Dinesh Singh and two former judges - BP Singh and RS Sodi - as other speakers.

All of them spoke against the concept of the lokpal and suggested that the government should strengthen the existing institutions to fight against corruption. "Adding another superbody in lokpal will not help," DU VC said. BP Singh said the lokpal will not have a "magic wand" to end corruption and wanted changes in existing anti-corruption laws to plug loopholes.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!

Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.