Trivedi: offer to join hazare was because of past links

Trinamool Congress leader Dinesh Trivedi had offered to resign as a minister at the Centre to join Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption campaign on account of his past association with the veteran Gandhian and his associate Arvind Kejriwal.

Trinamool Congress leader Dinesh Trivedi had offered to resign as a minister at the Centre to join Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption campaign on account of his past association with the veteran Gandhian and his associate Arvind Kejriwal.

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Trivedi discounted reports that the offer was prompted by his disenchantment with Rajya Sabha MP KD Singh’s induction in Trinamool. Singh was recently caught with wads of currency notes at Delhi airport.

The minister said his offer to join Hazare stands because it was made in the spirit of the 1997 petition he moved before the supreme court for making public the Vohra Committee report on criminal-political-bureaucratic nexus.

The right to information law was a fallout from the plea made jointly by enlightened citizens. It wanted the government to act on the report to curb corruption in politics.

The Court disposed of the petition. But in view of Hazare's fast and people's response to it, it's instructive to recall

that Justice AM Ahmadi and Sujata Manohar observed that an institution like the ombudsman or a Lok Pal, properly set up, could command the confidence and respect to probe individuals who occupy or have occupied high positions in the government.

It was in this backdrop that Trivedi offered to throw his lot with Hazare on seeing the government dither on setting up a joint panel to draft the Lok Pal Bill.