The fact that Arvind Kejriwal, a high-profile member of Team Anna Hazare, has been targeted twice in a single month must force members of the public to ask why this is so. Why have the anti-corruption Team Anna and its campaigners been so targeted?
Kejriwal, 43, was most recently the victim of allegations by a group of people at the Vasantrao Deshpande Hall on Sunday, who said that the Team Anna member was a middleman of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Members of the lesser-known Yuva Ghantanad Sanstha (YGS), a local youth organization, were demonstrating with banners and black flags, denouncing Kejriwal as a middleman for saffron parties.
Members of India Against Corruption (IAC), along with policemen, appealed to the YGS protesters to move to another place but the defiant protesters only raised their voices more.
The incident escalated further, after the YGS protestors were attacked by Team Anna personnel, while the former were talking to the media. The police had to step in and take both sets of supporters into custody.
According to a report by The Times of India, it has been alleged that YGS protesters (mostly young men) were sent to the venue at the behest of those in power, as they did not want the Jan Lokpal Bill to become a reality.
The first attack on Kejriwal happened on Oct. 18, at a public meeting in Lucknow. Jitendra Pathak accused Kejriwal of misleading people and claimed that Team Anna had lost its way and was no longer focusing on anti-corruption policies. Pathak threw a shoe at Kejriwal as a mark of his protest.
A week before, another Team Anna Core Committee Member, Prashant Bhushan, was attacked by activists claiming to be members of the Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena (BSKS).
