Prashant Bhushan, noted lawyer and former leader of the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), said on Saturday that the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement against the Manmohan Singh's UPA-II government in 2011-12 was propped up by the BJP-RSS.
In an interview with India Today's Rajdeep Sardesai, Bhushan said he regrets two things about the movement that led to the downfall of the Congress in 2014 and the rise of Narendra Modi.
"In hindsight there are two things I do regret. One is not having seen the movement to a large extent was supported and propped up by the BJP-RSS for their own political purposes to bring down the Congress government and get themselves in power," he said.
When asked to clarify his statement, he said, "I have no doubt about it today." He, however, said Anna Hazare was "probably not aware of it."
"But Arvind (Kejriwal) was aware of it. I have little doubt of that," he added.
"The second regret I have is not having understood Arvind's chacracter early enough. I understood it too late by which time we had actually created another Frankestien's monster," he further said.
Watch the clip of the interview here:
Responding to the interview, Twitter users pointed out that it was already a known fact that the movement was supported by the RSS. Yoga guru Baba Ramdev, considered close to the RSS, was another hint of the Sangh's involvement in the movement.
According to a PTI report published by India Today on February 6, 2012, the RSS slammed Anna for failing to acknowledge that its workers had played an "active role" in the movement.
"It is a fact that the Sangh workers in individual capacity did play an active role in the anti-corruption crusade by the civil society headed by Hazare.... It baffles me as to why the former did not acknowledge the fact," RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had told reporters.
Bhagwat had, however, clarified that the RSS was not part of the agitation even as it shared similar views and had adopted a resolution earlier in 2011.
Congress leaders say 'told you say'
With Prashant Bhushan placing on record that the IAC movement was supported by the RSS and Kejriwal was propped up by the right-wing organisation, Congress leaders said they had been saying this since the time of the agitation.
Here are some comments from the Congress leaders:
