Bedi suggests coalition with BJP to fight corruption

Activist Kiran Bedi on Wednesday sought to suggest that anti-corruption movements like that of Anna Hazare and Ramdev could team up with the Bharatiya Janata Party to form a coalition against corruption.

On a collision course with Arvind Kejriwal, she also said Hazare should make a fresh team of his own to take forward the anti-corruption movement forward.

"If this country is to get its CBI independent of the party in power then all different voices which have been speaking up need to come together in this cause and rise above ideologies and formations. The issue of anti-corruption can bring all such voices together. Fighting separately have been lonely fights so far, to the advantage of the ruling party mired in scams. This needs unity or a 'coalition against corruption'. It could then be a united and formidable people's voice," she told PTI.

She was responding to a question whether a united front of the BJP-Anna-Ramdev could take forward the movement against corruption.

Bedi had broken ranks with erstwhile Team Anna and it became public last Sunday when she skipped the protest against corruption opposing the decision to target the BJP. She is of the view that the party in power -- the Congress -- should be targeted while Kejriwal and others target both the Congress and the BJP.

She said there was an urgent need for separation of the two options --political alternative and anti-corruption movement -- so as to take the movement ahead. Her remarks came in reply to a question on whether it was proper for India Against Corruption to utilise the donations, which were collected for the agitations for a strong Lokpal, be used for political party.

"This is why the earlier the two options are separated, the better for both. I am sure this will be the way forward. This is why Anna needs to step in and settle these matters. He may want to shift the central office of the movement to Ralegan Siddi (from Delhi) and make a fresh team of his own to steer the anti-corruption movement," Bedi said.

She expressed hope that Hazare would call a meeting of all those who have worked for the cause selflessly under his guidance.

Asked whether she thought it to be corruption if the money is not later used for the cause it was propagating, she said, "Yes, we need to segregate this as soon as possible."

She said there was an urgent need "two expenditures" and she has no doubts the accountants may have already done so. "If not, it must be done," she said.

"I have no doubt that Anna as soon as he completes his detox retreat (in Bangalore) he will take stock of these needs and deal with them. For we must check the drift and the blur as soon as possible," she said.

In a tweet, she admitted that the division has taken place in the movement. "Sorry, division has already taken place when some amongst us wanted the political route. We now need to consolidate the movement," she said.

She was also of the view that the IAC needed Hazare "back in the centre" to take the movement forward in its "non-political, neutral and inclusive formation".

Taking a potshot at the series of agitations, she said the IAC as movement needs to stay focused in ways others than engaging in gheroas of all.

Asked whether she thinks that the movement has shifted focus from Lokpal to votes, she said one section of activists have chosen to shift the focus to provide a political alternative while there several others who want the movement to go on.

"We still do not have the Lokpal bill and an independent CBI, the real cause of this national movement. And we ought not rest till we get it. As also the Right to Reject, which Anna announced too," she said.