Anna and RSS links go back a long way: RSS Chief

Team Anna is now embroiled in another controversy.The  RSS chief, Mohanrao Bhagwat, has said that although the RSS never actively supported the Jan Lokpal movement, it was the RSS that urged Anna Hazare to go on the anti-corruption crusade. The RSS leader also claims that they had spoken to Baba Ramdev as well on starting an anti-corruption movement. In an interaction with journalists in Kolkata, Bhagwat claimed that Hazare’s association with the RSS goes back a long way, and that Hazare used to visit and train RSS cadres in Maharashtra. Bhagwat admitted that RSS activists were present in the Ramlila grounds when the anti-corruption crusade was at its peak. IBNLive reported that the RSS chief had said, “If asked to, we will participate in the movement, but no request has come from Anna.” [caption id=“attachment_127897” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Bhagwat has claimed that Anna Hazare used to train RSS carders in Maharashtra. PTI”]  [/caption] Congress leader Digvijaya Singh has been alleging that Hazare has a nexus with BJP-RSS in the anti-corruption agitation, and claimed that he had enough evidence to substantiate his allegations. The Times of India quotes Mohanrao Bhagwat as saying, “The links between Anna and the RSS go back a long way. It was the RSS that highlighted Anna’s developmental programmes for villages. We even got Anna to help us in our village development programmes. It was during these interactions that the RSS suggested to him to go in for a movement against corruption. I was supposed to meet Anna in June but both of us got held up elsewhere.” Bhagwat went on to say that the RSS backs Hazare and his movement, and that it will do so in the future as well. The RSS, he said, as an organisation, believes in creating better individuals who would lead corruption-free lives. The Congress leader had alleged that the anti-corruption agitation by Hazare and Baba Ramdev were part of an overall plan of RSS-BJP to divert attention from the Sangh’s “terror links” and warned spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravishankar that he too could be used by them. The All India Congress Committee General Secretary said that while Ramdev and Hazare were plan A and B of the Sangh-BJP, Sri Sri Ravishankar is Plan C and asked the spiritual guru to be “wary” of the two organisations. Singh remarked on the microblogging site Twitter “Plan A, B and C are of Sangh/BJP to divert the minds of the people from their involvement in terror activities to corruption. Plan A - Baba Ramdev. Crashed. Plan B- Anna? Plan C - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar soon to start his campaign”. Anna Hazare and his team have so far denied any links with the RSS.