Anna Hazare opposes Prashant Bhushan’s stand on Kashmir—ToI—15.10.11--Cracks in Hazare camp

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 

New Delhi: Cracks have appeared in Team Anna just a couple of months after they pushed the political class to agree to create a strong Lokpal and galvanized popular opinion against corruption, as members pursue their individual agendas. 
    On Friday, Anna Hazare and other members of the group distanced themselves from their comrade Prashant Bhushan’s advocacy to allow a plebiscite in Kashmir Valley on whether it should remain with India, while Justice Santosh Hegde hit out at Arvind Kejriwal for siding with Congress’s opponents in Hisar Lok Sabha by-election. 
    Hegde, who was a representative of Team Anna in the joint drafting committee on Lokpal bill, also took a dig at Kejriwal for his remarks that Hazare was above Parliament, observing that such things happen when somebody talks "too much". 
    With divisions sharpening on whether the group should campaign against Congress before seeing whether the government passes the Lokpal bill in the winter session, the group also announced the postponement of Hazare’s plan to take out a yatra in UP. 
    Even as the spotlight remained on the brutal assault on Bhushan by rightwing activists who were angry with him for saying that Kashmiris should be allowed to go their separate way if they don’t wish to be part of India, Kejriwal issued a statement saying that Team Anna was against plebiscite. The statement also stressed that the solution to J&K problem had to be found within the constitutional framework. Bhushan’s J&K view not right, says Hazare 
    Early on, speaking in his village Ralegan Siddhi, Hazare was more forthright in his criticism of Bhushan. “Whatever views he has articulated is not right,” he said in response to Bhushan’s radical proposal on the challenge in J&K. 
    Agency reports that Hazare was ambivalent on Bhushan's continuation in the core team led to widespread speculation, leading the Gandhian to issue a statement later saying, “I would like to state here, that besides Prashant Bhushan’s opinion on the Kashmir issue, he is still an integral part of our team,” Hazare said. Kejriwal too rushed in to issue a denial that Bhushan could be dropped. “He is an integral part of the team. He is a very respected citizen who has worked in several areas including environment and human rights. He has played a crucial role in the anti-corruption movement also,” Kejriwal said referring to Bhushan. 
    He also clarified that Bhushan had been read out the draft statement before he left for the US. 
    But as he struggled to scotch the state of equations among leading members of Team Anna, Kejriwal himself came under attack from fellow member of the core committee Justice Hegde for campaigning against Congress in the Hisar Lok Sabha by-election. Saying that Kejriwal, said to be instrumental in Team Anna’s decision to oppose Congress in the by-election, “jumped the gun”, the retired SC judge said, “I believe (Hazare) movement is and should be apolitical. Even before Parliament could debate the Lokpal bill, they went to Hisar and campaigned against the Congress. I don’t think it was the right thing to do.” 
    In an interview to a newsmagazine, Justice Hegde suggested that in Hisar, there was little to choose between Congress and the candidates its opponents fielded.