RTI activist asked to pay Rs 450 for Jan Lokpal bill tapes

Social activist and close aide of Anna Hazare, Prashant Bhushan, said that the move would help their cause and will let people know the truth.

Social activist Anna Hazare has welcomed the government's decision to release the taped conversations between members of the Jan Lokpal bill drafting committee. "It is a welcome move", said Hazare. The government of India decided to release the tapes to right to information activist Subash Aggarwal. Aggarwal had filed an application on June 7 to get the relevant material.

Advocate and social activist Prashant Bhushan, a close aide of Hazare, said that the move would help their cause and people would know the truth. RTI activist Aggarwal told rediff.com that he had received a call from RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal's office to pass on the tapes so that they could be released to the media.

Aggarwal has, however, been asked to pay Rs 450 for the tapes, which are being readied, and will be handed to him once he makes the payment.   

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Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, refused to comment on the statement of Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh, who claimed that Anna Hazare was favouring Bharatiya Janata Party as the party had promised to make him a candidate for the 2012 Presidential elections.

"It is statement that is not worth commenting upon," said Jaitley, refusing to answer any further questions on the subject.

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Digvijay Singh had lashed out at Anna Hazare who had categorically denied that neither the BJP nor the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh had supported his hunger strike against corruption at New Delhi's Ramlila maidan. "The RSS chief has gone on record saying that they had lent support to Anna's movement. This goes on to prove that there was a nexus between the two. I have been told that BJP told Anna that the party would put him up as Presidential candidate with support from other opposition parties," he told reporters at the Congress headquarters on Sunday.

Hazare's close aide Prashant Bhushan told rediff.com that Digvijay Singh was in the habit of making such statements and hence no one should take them seriously.

He supported Arvind Kejriwal's statement that Hazare was above the Parliament. "You should see the background under which Kejriwal said this. The preamble to the Constitution very clearly says that the people of India are supreme. Whether it is Anna Hazare or any other citizen of India," he explained.