M A I N   N E W S

Agnivesh is new entrant to ‘Bigg Boss’ house
Team Anna smells a ‘rat’, suspects govt to be the ‘new director’ of the show
Vibha Sharma/TNS

New Delhi, November 8
The latest entrant in the television reality show “Bigg Boss” — Swami Agnivesh — may claim to have an innocent agenda of social reforms like female foeticide and gender inequality lined up during his confinement in the action packed house, but his former friends-turned-adversaries in the Team Anna are quite intrigued with the saffron-clad social activist’s “startling” decision to land up in the controversial house. They, in fact, smell a “political rat” behind the entire endeavour and suspect the government to be the “new director” of the show.

Officially, Team Anna seems to have decided to “ignore” Agnivesh’s latest move but many of them admit that they would be watching with keen interest all his moves on the season five of the late-night TV show, which has been known more for the ferocious catfights between its women inmates than anything else.

“Let us see what he has to say while on the show but his entry does appear to be engineered by the government, perhaps to offset the gains made by the Anna side among the youth. But I don’t think whatever he says on the show will affect Team Anna’s efforts for a strong Jan Lokpal Bill,” a member of the core committee said.

Since inmates can discuss all issues inside the house, Agnivesh is expected to speak about his differences with Team Anna and recent developments, including his insistence on transparency in the movement and NGOs run by key members like Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi.

Claiming not to have struck any monetary deal with the channel, Agnivesh says he will be using the platform to promote and create awareness on social issues, including corruption. “I do feel the show can provide me a platform to talk discuss and create awareness on several social issues like corruption, gender inequality, women development and others. I feel the urban youth of this country can make a difference and they must be tapped,” said the activist, who fell out with the Anna side after a video surfaced in which he was seen talking to an unidentified person, apparently union minister Kapil Sibal, asking him to deal strongly with the Gandhian.

While the incident was the precursor to his fall out with the Team Anna with several members openly referring to him as a government agent, Agnivesh carried on his onslaught against them with the claim that Kejriwal siphoned off over 80 lakh from the Anna campaign kitty. Agnivesh accused Kejriwal of depositing donations in a private trust run by him, of which none of prominent Team Anna activists are members.

Incidentally, Agnivesh will be the fifth male contestant after Shakti Kapoor, Amar Upadhyay, Akashdeep Saigal and Siddhartha to join the gang of girls on the show. According to Agnivesh, the fights among inmates of the house are nothing when compared to ugly brawls among our illustrious politicians that happen quite frequently in Parliament and state Assemblies.