Team Anna, Baba Ramdev go separate ways

Just days after a joint one-day fast, both sides, Team Anna and Baba Ramdev, seem to have have drifted away again. While Ramdev is busy wooing political parties, Anna Hazare has backed his teammates and launched a direct attack on the Prime Minister. This came even as Ramdev had said naming individuals was not right.

As Team Anna met for an eight hour brainstorming session on Monday, the yoga guru was busy meeting political leaders seeking support for his movement.

Ramdev met Bharatiya Janata Party President Nitin Gadkari seeking his support for his movement to bring back the black money allegedly stashed abroad. Gadkari extended the BJP's support to Ramdev saying, "Baba Ramdev's fight against black money is very important. We as the BJP party support Baba Ramdev in this andolan. This is an agitation above party lines, this is for the benefit of the country."

Ramdev has now also sought appointments with Lalu Prasad, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Sonia Gandhi, AB Bardhan and Sharad Yadav among others.

"I have written to Sonia Gandhi to meet her. I have sought time from all the political parties to seek their support," Ramdev said.

Speaking to IBN18 Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai, Ramdev reiterated that naming individuals was not right. "When individuals are associated with issues, political parties will start doing their own thing. It will be deviated from the issues to the individuals. When we mention individuals, we will deviate from black money or a strong Lokpal.

While Ramdev stuck to his stand of not naming politicians, Team Anna remained firm on its strategy in its core group meeting. After the meeting, Anna launched a direct attack on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying that after seeing the coal blocks' allocation papers, he was suspicious about the Prime Minister's role in it.

Team Anna members are planning another fast from July 25 to press for a strong Lokpal Bill. There is no mention of whether Ramdev will be invited to join this platform. The difference in the approach seems to be apparent.

When Ramdev disagreed with Kejriwal's ways

Baba Ramdev's alliance with Team Anna seemed to be on a shaky ground after Arvind Kejriwal stormed out of the fast venue on Sunday after Ramdev objected to Kejriwal naming MPs in his speech, which the yoga guru said was against the fast protocol.

Ramdev said the fight against graft was not against individuals. "Arvind Kejriwal should not have taken names. It could create controversy. Please don't see it as a personal attack. This fight is not against any individual," Ramdev said. Kejriwal in his speech had said that Parliament would never pass the Lokpal bill as long as MPs like Lalu Prasad, A Raja and Suresh Kalmadi were present.

Soon after Kejriwal, who was on fast along with Anna Hazare and the yoga guru, finished his speech, Ramdev took the microphone and said "today, we thought that we will not name anybody. But Arvind took the names".

"We don't want any controversies. Arvind does not have any enmity with anyone. The names have been taken in some context. We are against personal criticism", he said. During his speech, Kejriwal had attacked Manmohan Singh and his Cabinet colleagues whom Team Anna had accused of indulging in corruption.

However, clearing his stand Kejriwal later, while speaking to reporters, said that he had to leave as he was unwell and he has the greatest respect for Ramdev.

Kejriwal had said that no political party wanted a strong Lokpal Bill. "There are serious allegation against 15 ministers out of 34. That is why they are not passing Lokpal Bill. Manmohan Singh is the leader of those 34 ministers. There is allegation against Manmohan Singh in coal allocation scam. 155 mines were given to the private companies without bidding and Manmohan Singh was coal minister that time," he said.

"None of the investigating agency is neutral, all comes under the government. All cases should be handed over to special investigation team. We have written to the Prime Minister that all the cases should be handed over to fast track court," he added.