Hope Hazare's movement doesn't lose steam: Patkar

Activist Medha Patkar on Tuesday suggested that Anna Hazare may have taken the decision to disband his team in view of his "concerns" about getting involved with their proposed political front.

"The only thing that came to my mind whether it was a decision taken by the core team or not. That didn't get reflected by the blog post. But Hazare had already said that he would not be involved with the political front so probably he expressed his concerns and made the decision," she said.

The activist, however, did add that Hazare could have taken a different route to announce his decision. "Probably it could have been in a different way but Anna Hazare is Anna Hazare," Patkar said.

She expressed hope that the movement would not lose steam even though the means have changed. "Everything is a question mark. I hope the movement stands because so many of them came to the Jantar Mantar and supported the cause. So for them, hopefully the movement doesn't lose steam," she said.

"They are changing their course of action and I wish them well but warn them caution as well. There is dilemma in people's minds but you do not know what works.

"The decision to go into electoral politics is not ours and therefore we cannot comment. But there have been examples where coming out of movements and getting into electoral reforms has worked. Both movements and electoral politics have their pros and cons," Patkar said.

Patkar who was "always for widening the agenda and to use innovative means to expand the movement", said getting into mainstream politics would probably give Team Anna chance to do just that.

The social activist, however, refrained from commenting whether she will take a "direct or indirect" role in Team Anna's new approach.

"We have not taken any decision and there are no plans. All decisions taken by us are in consensus with National Alliance of People's Movements and Narmada Bachao Andolan. We were not even part of the core team but the core committee and it was a long time since I attended any meeting as well," she said.