Why are you soft on BJP? Digvijay asks Hazare

NEW DELHI: With Team Anna campaigning against his party in Hisar bypoll, Congress leader Digvijay Singh today questioned Anna Hazare on why he was not attacking the BJP and cautioned him against "lofty promises" by that party of making him a Presidential candidate.

"You have never raised your voice against the BJP," Singh, who has been a vocal critic of Team Anna, said and asked why he was "silent" on the issue of corruption when the BJP-led NDA was in power.

"What is being seen now is that you have been strongly opposing the Congress and as against this you have been praising BJP's Narendra Modi despite the fact that there is no Lokayukta in Gujarat for the past nine years," Singh said in the four-page open letter written just two days before the Hisar bypoll.

Referring again to his claim that BJP has offered to make Hazare the presidential candidate, he said, "The talk is that the BJP wants to make you a candidate in the Presidential election next year. You become a candidate, but beware of the lofty promises of the BJP, which is in the habit of leading people up the garden path."

Singh, a former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, asked Hazare as to whether he was oblivious as to with whom he and his associates will be aligning by the call to vote against the Congress.

"Are you not aware of the history of the family of late Bhajan Lal? Are you not acquainted with the history of Chautala family? Are you oblivious of the fact that there were cases of corruption pending against them in courts?," he asked.

Singh told Hazare that an impression was gaining ground that he has been surrounded by people who have always been opposed to the ideology of the Congress.

"Be it Shanti Bhushan or his son Prashant or your colleague Arvind Kejriwal. All these people have been opposed to the Congress. These people are taking benefit of your clean character for their own political gains," he said attacking Team Anna members.