If Anna wants to remove us, he can do so in 2 minutes: Kejriwal

Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal has alleged that the government was spending crores of rupees and planting stories in the media to separate Anna Hazare from him, Kiran Bedi and Prashant Bhushan.

Accusing the government of trying to defame Team Anna with charges that would not stick, he said during a programme on TV channel Aaj Tak that "there's a conspiracy to separate Anna Hazare from Kiran Bedi, Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan.

"The government is spending crores of rupees for this. Stories are being planted in the media," Kejriwal was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the channel.

He said Team Anna was targeting the Congress because no other party could assure a strong Lokpal Bill at the Centre.

 "After the assurance given by the prime minister and Sonia Gandhi, we are confident that there will be a strong Lokpal at the Centre. But when that will happen, I don't know," he said.

On the allegations levelled by him -- that the government was tapping the phones of Team Anna members -- he said they were not going to file an FIR.

"The government can go on tapping our phones, following us, digging up our power lines," he said. 

Asked about the remarks of Hazare's former blogger Raju Parlekar that the Gandhian was being manipulated by Kejriwal for his political end, he said the activist had never named anyone when he talked of reconstituting the core committee.

"I don't know on what basis he is saying this, I have only met Parlekar for an hour, once, in Ralegan Siddhi. If Anna wants to remove any one of us, he can do it in two minutes.

It's his movement, not ours," he said.