Hazare puts off press meet, team to brief him

Social activist Anna Hazare has postponed a press conference he was to address on Monday morning, saying he needed time to collect "more information", a day after Team Anna member Kiran Bedi advised his close aide to "fully brief" the activist on allegations against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"Today's Anna's press conference is postponed. Timing and date will (be) inform(ed) later. We are collecting information, for this we need more time," Hazare's close aide Suresh Pathare tweeted on Monday morning.

Pathare had announced Hazare's press conference in Ralegan Siddhi on Sunday evening through a tweet. Shortly after that, Bedi had advised Pathare to "fully brief" him on the remarks made by a former coal secretary against Singh before the activist talked to the press.

The postponement of Hazare's press conference also came amidst a renewed government attack on his team, which included Union minister Vayalar Ravi's remarks that Team Anna was "not that innocent" and that its activists could be acting in a "conspiracy" to destabilise Indian politics.

Bedi's advice came as Hazare continues his flip-flops on the prime minister.

"Annaji maybe fully briefed on the statement given on TV of coal secretary that the prime minister did not do enough to ensure coal blocks are auctioned," she said in reply to Pathare's tweet.

Hazare has been making flip-flops on Singh after his team levelled allegations on May 26 against the prime minister on the basis of a leaked draft CAG report on coal block allocations.

Initially, Hazare said Singh was an honest man and he would take a call on the prime minister only after seeing the file prepared by his team. But a few days later, he said he had lost faith in the prime minister.

On June 4, Hazare said he has doubts about the prime minister after going through the file prepared by his team.

However, three days later, Hazare described Singh as a "good man" against whom there was no example of corruption yet.

"I have said from the beginning that Manmohan Singh is a good man. Don't have any example of corruption yet. But he is going through a bad time. He is a good man but is handled by a remote control. What can a person do?" Hazare had said.

Notwithstanding the flip-flops by Hazare, Team Anna has chalked out a campaign strategy for their indefinite fast, deciding to tour western Uttar Pradesh villages where they will "discuss in detail" corruption allegations against Singh.