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Senior Bhartiya Janata Party vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi has condemned the manner in which the Congress and United Progressive Alliance ministers launched an all-out attack against Anna Hazare on Sunday --less than 48 hours before he embarks on the second indefinite fast -- to press for total acceptance of Jan Lokpal bill.
He regretted the manner in which Anna was being targetted.
"It seems all-out war has broken out between Anna supporters and the government who seems to be protecting the corrupt regime of Dr Manmohan Singh's government," Naqvi alleged.
"The issue is not Hazare. The issue is how to curb corruption and bring it down to a zero tolerance level," he said.
"First you give them a VIP treatment, and later launch personal attack on Hazare. Dr Singh's ministers are complicating the matters further, by referring to Justice P B Sawants' report and quoting extracts from it in detail, as was done by Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari," he said.
When pointed out that human resource development has compared the right to protest with America and Britain, and asked if ever the two great democracies had ever allowed anyone to protest either before Capitol Hill or Westminister Abbey, Naqvi said that it is not proper to do so.
"You cannot do away with the systems which are already in place. It is true that Hazare was the first to depose before Parliament's standing committee against the government version of the Lokpal bill. If he has further suggestions he could appear before the committee again," he conceded.
He, however, chose not to say anything whether it was justified on part of Hazare to go in for second round of protest.