Tempers ran high at a Congress MPs meeting that Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee took here on Thursday in the absence of party president Sonia Gandhi to explain the events relating to the Anna Hazare agitation.
While some expressed indignation at the conduct of the Gandhian who entered the 10th day of his anti-corruption fast, others sought to toe a soft line. The varied views made the party look unclear about its line on the issue, leaving the chair at pains to give a definite reply to fellow parliamentarians.
J P Aggarwal, MP from Delhi, was furious when he referred to Hazare’s speech at Ramlila Maidan yesterday. “Can you keep calling us thieves and bandits, and still expect that we will talk to you with equanimity and patience?” he asked. Chimed in Lal Singh, MP from Jammu: “We are traitors? We, to whom people run when they want all their work done after the bureaucracy tells them to take a hike?”
The proceedings saw notes dissenting such statements. There were voices that sought to know why the ruling party was confronting Hazare rather than agreeing with him.
“When our children ask us why the Congress is opposing a person like Anna Hazare, who is raising his voice against corruption and risking everything he has, we are unable to reply. Can somebody tell us?” asked Prabha Thakur, former Mahila Congress Chief.
Ministers found themselves confronted with awkward questions and accusations. Some MPs said it was all the fault of the Information Minister, who should have done something to snap the satellite link that connected the protesters to the outside world.
Among themselves MPs griped that the “misplaced” treatment and handling of Hazare – his imprisonment succeeding party general secretary Manish Tewari’s attack on him (for which Tewari expressed profound regrets on Thursday, but will still be faced with a defamation suit to be filed by Hazare supporters). Some MPs thought the government was “too soft” in handling Hazare. Others thought it was “too tough” on him.
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By the time the meeting got underway it was already 10.40 am — and time for the two Houses to convene. Mukherjee offered to hold another such meeting later in the session to “explain” to “confused MPs” the party line on Hazare.