Member walks out of meeting; frictions in Team Anna?

Mangaloretoday/ NDTV

New Delhi, April 22:  The core team of Anna Hazare met in Noida today, with evident signs of friction amongst its members. Team member Mufti Shamoon Qasmi walked out of the core committee meeting even as conflicting reports emerged out of why that happened.

 

Mr Qasmi walked out and told the media that he wasn’t being heard and so it only seemed appropriate to walk out. However Team Anna members suggested that the reasons he walked out were different. Mr Qasmi was seen recording proceedings of the meeting and the team members felt it wasn’t the right thing to do as the proceedings were not meant to be recorded.

When Mr Qasmi’s phone was checked, it turned out that he had three recordings of the meeting. He was then asked to leave and not attend the next few sessions.

"Information was being leaked out. We realised a lot of what was happening was being fed to the media. A member saw that the meeting was being recorded and asked him to stop recording and leave," said Kiran Bedi, member of the Team.

The meeting was held amid reports that the members are unhappy over the Gandhian activist tying up with Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev for a joint rally on June 3 in New Delhi.

Several reports suggest that many of Anna Hazare’s core team members are unhappy with this tie-up. Sources within the team have told NDTV that they were not informed about this tie-up either by Mr Hazare or Baba Ramdev.
 

Both the activists addressed a press conference in Gurgaon on Friday, announcing a fast on June 3. They said they will share stage in the future on various issues like Jan Lokpal Bill and black money. They have applied for a permission to hold the fast at Jantar Mantar in Delhi - a venue where Anna Hazare has held quite a few protests since last year.


Baba Ramdev had, however, rubbished the reports of friction in the Anna Hazare camp over the tie-up with him. Addressing the joint press conference on Friday, Baba Ramdev said the two were very much together "till the last breath."