Targeting Congress not correct, says Justice Santosh Hegde

NEW DELHI: Reflecting a rift within Team Anna Hazare, Justice Santosh Hegde has disapproved of the anti-Congress campaign by fellow Arvind Kejriwal during Hisar bypolls, saying it was not the right thing to do and "we jumped the gun".

Hegde, who was a representative of Team Anna in the Joint Drafting Committee on Lokpal Bill, also took a dig at Kejriwal for his remarks that Hazare was above Parliament, observing that such things happen when somebody talks "too much".

Describing himself as an apolitical person, the former Karnataka Lokayukta said, "I believe the (Hazare) movement is and should be apolitical. Even before Parliament could debate the Lokpal Bill, they went to Hisar and campaigned against the Congress. I don't think it was the right thing to do." He noted that corrupt people "are not just in the Congress" but in other parties as well.

"If Anna and the other team members felt compelled to intervene in the electoral process, they should have only asked the people to choose the best candidate. That would have been the ideal thing to do," Hegde told a magazine when asked whether he was uncomfortable with the Hisar episode.

Emphasising that he was not pro-Congress, he said he did not know much about the Congress candidate in Hisar but claimed that Kuldeep Bishnoi (of HJC) and Ajay Chautala (INLD) were not above board. "How then we ask people to vote against the Congress?"