Anna Hazare takes a U-turn, gives clean chit to PM

THANE: Continuing his flip-flop, social activist Anna Hazare made a U-turn and gave a clean chit to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on corruption charges against him.

Addressing a rally here last night as part of his tour to create awareness about a strong Lokpal, the anti-corruption crusader softened his stand on the Prime Minister and instead appeared to blame Sonia Gandhi, without naming her.

"Manmohan Singh is an honest person and there is no direct proof of his involvement in corruption. However, there is a certain remote control which dictates decisions to him and so there is an air of suspicion around him," he said.

Hazare had recently said that he had no faith in the Prime Minister and his associates had targeted him on alleged irregularities in allocation of coal blocks.

He had said that most of the elected representatives were involved in corruption and took undue advantage of lack of public information and during the last 65 years, not a single law of public interest was passed in Lok Sabha or state Assemblies by the "members elected by public".

Earlier, local Congressmen staged an agitation in front of the circuit house here, where Hazare was staying, and demanded an unconditional apology from him for his remarks against the Prime Minister.

To a question that whether he would return the Padma award in protest against the failure to pay any heed to his demands, Hazare said, "No, No. The fight will go on till our demands are fulfilled."

He said that before the 2014 general elections, he will tour the entire country for one more round of mass awakening to educate the citizens about the corrupt system.