Srinagar: Congress leader Mani Shankar
Aiyar on Saturday termed Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev`s campaign
against corruption as a "circus in Jantar Mantar and Ramlila
Ground" but was critical of the way the UPA government handled
the recent events.
"I would have ignored Baba Ramdev, I would have also
ignored Anna Hazare. I would have told them you run your show,
your circus in Jantar Mantar and Ramlila Ground.
"But if you want to talk to Parliament of India,
please place your applications before the relevant standing
committee," Aiyar told reporters here on the sidelines of a
function.
He said had he been the Prime Minister, he would never
have sent four ministers to meet Ramdev and would never have
"unleashed police on the sleeping people".
"What concerns me is that our reaction to the recent
events has not been what it should have been," the former
Union minister said.
The Congress Parliamentarian, however, questioned the
position of the Civil Society team, led by activist Hazare, to
be a part of the government committee for drafting the Lokpal bill.
"These decisions should have been taken by Parliament.
These cannot be taken by a committee of half-a-dozen ministers
and something called Team Anna Hazare," he said.
"What is the position of Team Hazare?" asked Aiyar.
To a question on noted lawyer Ram Jethmalani comparing
the situation in Jammu and Kashmir with that in Nazi Germany,
Aiyar said "he has a number of English words on his tongue but
very little brain in his head."
He described the BJP as a "weak and divided party which
has been rejected by the Hindus in whose name they claim to
speak".
"They have proved themselves to be incompetent... So
what they are resorting to is closing down Parliament," Aiyar
said.
PTI
