Anna Denies Foreign Hand in Campaign

Manish Sisodia, a senior member of Team Anna, declined the allegations about the movement receiving foreign funding as “baseless.” He added “There is no single penny coming from foreign persons or foreign bodies,” as reported WSJ India. He said that “corruption, more than any foreign funding, real or imagined is a bigger destabilizing factor in a democracy.”

Kiran Bedi allegedly challenged the government to investigate allegations that Team Anna is anti-national.

Congress brought up the cold war to discredit Hazare during last summer’s mass anticorruption protests. The PM earlier this year saw the foreign hand behind opposition to the construction of a nuclear power plant in Kudankulam, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

Congress party spokesman Rashid Alvi said that his party could not comment on Ravi’s latest claim that Team Anna received foreign funding. But, he said that he stood by comments he made last summer when he hinted that Hazare was backed by external forces, repeating that “we should be cautious of our enemies.”

The recent row between the government and Team Anna comes as Hazare and his supporters have demanded that Manmohan Singh should be investigated along with other cabinet ministers in relation to allegations that the coal block allocation a few years ago was rigged. The PM has denied any wrongdoing.

A letter released by the Prime Minister’s Office slammed these accusations as ‘unacceptable’ and turned down Team Anna’s request to set up a special investigation on the matter, saying the existing legal framework is sufficient.