Hazare writes to Kejriwal, says walk the talk on party funding
In a letter to Kejriwal, dated December 23, the veteran social activist, who is also a ‘father-like figure’ for Kejriwal, took a dig at the Delhi chief minister and said if change has to be brought into the system, then the leadership should “walk the talk”.
Anti-graft crusader Anna Hazare has hit out at Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal for “not fulfilling the promise” of putting his party’s donor list in public domain.
The criticism comes at a time when the AAP has been questioning the Congress and the BJP over their source of funding.
In a letter to Kejriwal, dated December 23, the veteran social activist, who is also a ‘father-like figure’ for Kejriwal, took a dig at the Delhi chief minister and said if change has to be brought into the system, then the leadership should “walk the talk”.
“For the betterment of country and the society, I kept aside several important works related to people in Maharashtra and gave you my time without any selfish interest and dreamt big for the country. But my dream has been shattered,” Hazare, who along with Kejriwal led the anti-corruption crusade by India against Corruption in 2011, wrote in his letter.
The letter referred to Munish Raizada, a US-based medico and suspended AAP member, pointing out that donor records have gone off the party website since June 2016. Raizada launched a ‘no chanda’ (no donation) satyagraha at Raj Ghat on Saturday.
Read: Kejriwal is taking right steps, says Anna Hazare
AAP’s national treasurer Raghav Chadha, however, claimed at a press conference that Hazare was being misled by Congress leaders on the issue while the BJP is using state agencies to threaten its donors.
The AAP has been challenging the Congress and BJP to come out clean on their source of funding. Repeating the party’ stand on Saturday, Chadha challenged BJP president Amit Shah and Congress President Sonia Gandhi to come out clean on party donors and have a debate on the issue at Jantar Mantar.
“It has been widely reported that the AAP gets 92% of its donations through banks. Details of the rest 8% is also provided to the banks. On the contrary, 70% of donations to BJP come through unknown sources. Congress receives 80% of its donations through unknown sources. People whose names have figured in Swiss bank lists give donations to these parties,” Chadha said.
On the issue of removing details of donors from party’s website, the AAP leader said it has been done as the BJP was ‘harassing’ the donors by using state agencies.