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Anna supporters target Kejriwal at IAC meet
Vibha Sharma/TNS

New Delhi, October 21
Every new day seems to bring with it a new revelation about the pitfalls of being in public life for activist-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal. So, a day after senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh bombarded the newest politician on the block with a set of 27 questions about his life and times, Kejriwal today found himself at the receiving end of his former colleagues at a press conference he had himself called to target the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government in Haryana. Soon after Kejriwal had finished criticising the Haryana Chief Minister for his alleged role in land deals (favouring infrastructure giant DLF and Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra) and paraded IAC activists injured in anti-Hooda protests in the Capital, a group claiming to be supporters of Anna Hazare moved in to corner him with questions on his political methodology.

Questioning the alleged financial impropriety of Kejriwal’s close aides Anjali Damania, Prashant Bhushan and Mayank Gandhi, an Anna supporter, who identified herself as Annie Kohli, wanted to know whether he was “a politician or a revolutionary”. Kohli’s supporters also joined in, calling Kejriwal “a liar” in front of a battery of journalists called to see the IAC members injured in police action outside Hooda’s residence.

Clearly disenchanted with Kejriwal’s ways, they wanted to know the details of his connections with Congress MP Sandeep Dixit and reasons behind his recent “flip-flops”. “You keep backtracking on your promises…why?” they asked.

After his attempts to reason out with them failed, Kejriwal walked away. Later, however, he told mediapersons that it was the first time he had met Kohli. “Did you understand what she was asking?” he asked those who wanted to know why he had walked away from his detractors.

While Kejriwal’s supporters called the high drama at the IAC’s A-119 Kaushmbi office as one engineered by the Congress, the development came as a delightful interlude in Kejriwal’s breathless attack against the leaders of the grand old party. “He will soon come to know what it is like to be in politics. He is getting a dose of his own medicine,” a Congress spokesman said, adding that Kejriwal’s refusal to answer direct questions posed by Digvijay Singh would now be used by the party to build public opinion against him.

For Kejriwal, however, dissent by former colleagues is not new. Just a few days back, Mumbai cop YP Singh had launched an offensive against him for sparing NCP leader Sharad Pawar. His bitter parting with the Anna Group, Kiran Bedi, Santosh Hegde and others, is also well documented.

Political observers,however, say that by not answering Digvijay’s questions right away, Kejriwal may end up generating ambiguity in the people’s minds against him. “He needs to come out clean on funding aspects and his colleagues such as Damania, Bhushan and Gandhi fast,” they say. 

War of words

• Kejriwal hit back at Digvijay Singh, but also said that he would not answer his 27 posers till the Congress responded to issues and charges raised by him against Vadra, Hooda and Salman Khurshid
• He also challenged Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to a public debate on corruption
• The Congress ruled out a debate involving the PM, saying even its block-level leaders could corner Kejriwal