New Delhi: Cracks in the core group of Team Anna are widening and there is growing clamour for the restructuring of the team. Another core team member Dr Kumar Vishwas on Friday publicly dissented. Dr Vishwas wrote to Anna Hazare and called for the existing team to be disbanded and a fresh one appointed in its place.
In a letter to Anna, his aide Dr Vishwas demanded the reconstitution of the core committee.
Dr Vishwas pointed out in his letter that it is worrying how certain Team Anna members are facing repeated attacks from anti-Anna campaigners on serious charges like graft - an allusion to the trio of Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi and the Bhushans.
Anna's spokesperson Raju Parulekar said the team will be revamped to convey sense that members in the movement are not with self interests. "The core group will meet tomorrow to decide on whether the present Team Anna core committee will continue as it is, " said Parulekar.
Anna's spokesperson said that revamp of the core committee is on the cards. However, the prominent faces of Team Anna - Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi - will be retained, though their roles might change.
Parulekar added, "Things will change, because Anna wants them to change. Now the movement will be a pan-Indian movement. They are important members of Team Anna, ofcourse they are important members but team Anna itself is going to change so their roles also might change."
Former Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde said the recommendations were good and the core committee must include more members.
He further pointed that he would not be able to attend the Team Anna meeting as he was not a part of the core committee.
The team has recently witnessed a few attacks and allegations on some of the core members such as Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi and Prashant Bhushan.
While Kejriwal was accused of depositing donations collected for Hazare agitation against corruption in PCRF as well as its anti-Congress campaign in Hisar by-poll, Bedi has been battling charges of overcharging her hosts by inflating travel bills.
Another Team Anna member Medha Patkar, on the other hand, said there is no chasm within the team.
In another related development, two key members - PV Rajagopal and Rajendra Singh - had quit the team alleging that the movement had turned political.
Apart from these, Hegde, who was chosen by Anna Hazare as one of the civil society representatives in the Lokpal Bill Drafting Committee, had also voiced his disapproval of the anti-Congress campaign by Team Anna in Hisar by-poll.
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