New Delhi:
Spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravishankar has changed the itinerary of his tour in Uttar Pradesh - he will not visit Amethi, which is Rahul Gandhi's constituency. The omission is allegedly the result of political pressure on the ashram that was meant to host him. "I am cancelling Amethi because right now, it's causing a lot of problem for local people," said the founder of the Art of Living Foundation.
Sri Sri began his yatra or tour against corruption yesterday. It's scheduled to end on Friday. At different "satsangs," he wants people to take a pledge against paying bribes and corruption.
His stop in Amethi was reportedly ruled out because of fears that his followers would be harassed by members or supporters of the Congress and Mr Gandhi. "We were being troubled so we asked him not to come," claims Shri Hari Brahmachari, who manages the ashram where Sri Sri's meeting public gathering was meant to take place.
Uttar Pradesh is scheduled to vote for its next government in the next few months, making it the preferred destination for activists who want to maximize the current frustration with corruption to make it an electoral issue.
Anna Hazare, the 74-year-old headliner of the India Against Corruption campaign, has warned the Congress that he will personally campaign against the party in Uttar Pradesh if it does not ensure the Lokpal Bill is passed in the winter session of the Parliament, which begins later this month. The Lokpal Bill is the cornerstone of Anna's movement - it delivers a new ombudsman agency which will have the right to investigate complaints of graft against government servants.
Sri Sri starred in Anna's epic hunger strike in August as a mediator between the government and the Gandhian. He was reportedly instrumental in brokering the compromise needed for Anna to end his fast. That truce included a commitment to carefully considering Anna's vision of the sort of powers that the Lokpal needs.
However, since then, Sri Sri has stressed that the Lokpal Bill alone cannot solve the ubiquitous corruption that seems to govern both politics and everyday life in India.
Congress leader Digvijaya Singh has through a series of tweets and "open letters" to Anna attacked the Gandhian for an undisclosed political kinship with the opposition BJP and its right-wing parent body, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh or RSS.
Mr Singh also described - again on twitter - Sri Sri as the BJP's "Plan C." Anna, in his view, was Plan A. Yoga guru Baba Ramdev, who conducted a massive protest camp in July against corruption and black money, was Plan B, claims Mr Singh.
Baba Ramdev's camp ended with police action that is now being studied by the Supreme Court - the thousands of people sleeping at the camp late at night woke to a lathi charge as the police disbanded the sit-in.