New Delhi:
As Anna Hazare's fast entered the tenth day on Thursday, his team accused "some strong elements" in the government of nullifying the entire dialogue process and said that they have become victims of Congress' "internal politics".
Stating that they were ready to hold talks in a "honest and sincere manner", Team Anna alleged that Home Minister P Chidambaram and HRD Minister Kapil Sibal were taking a strong stand forcing the government not to enter into a compromise with them on the Lokpal Bill.
"It appears that there are some strong elements in the government who want to nullify the entire dialogue process...We were told that in CCPA (Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs) especially Chidambaram and Sibal, were completely opposed to any kind of agreement or any kind of dialogue. We are becoming victims of Congress' internal politics," Arvind Kejriwal, a member of Team Anna, told reporters.
Kejriwal said that that on Tuesday, the talks had been positive, but in the CCPA meeting, Salman Khursheed told us that there was a lot of fighting. Chidambaram and Sibal said there should be no dialogue with us and we should be tackled with a tough hand,"
The accusation came after late night talks between two sides ended in a deadlock with both sides failing to resolve the key issues, prompting the civil society to declare that they were "back to square one".
Kejriwal said if the CCPA and government can "ignore" the views of a senior leader like Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, the chief government negotiator, then the question is whom should they (Team Anna) talk to?
But Team Anna said they were willing to continue the dialogue. "We will talk to the government," another Team Anna member Prashant Bhushan said.