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'I feel Anna will support us if we do our work honestly'
Yes, we are into politics, says Arvind Kejriwal in an interview to CNN-IBN. Kejriwal said that an announcement on the new political party was likely to be made on October 2.
Split with Anna Hazare
How can there be a break with Annaji! He does not support our move to form a political party. He feels that politics is dirty, politics is bad and we should stay away. We feel the situation in the country has become so bad that one needs to enter into this and reform it from within.
Getting back Anna's support
Annaji supports anything that is for the benefit of this country. I've a feeling that if we keep on doing our work honestly and sincerely I'm very sure he will join in this effort also.
It should not be interpreted as a break. He has said all this because he feels that if his name and photograph is used by a political party, in legal terms we are going to be a political party, and then it will be treated as partisan. He wants to stay non partisan. But if we will keep on doing our work honestly he will support this effort.
Ideological differences in the team
I can't talk about others; I can only talk about Anna. I don't think Anna has ideological leanings. There is a problem and he tries to find solution to that.
Neither do I have any ambition nor does Anna have any ambition. Both of us want that we should have a corruption free India. The paths could be different but very soon the paths will merge sometime. There is more practicality in Anna and our position. We try to figure out the problem and the solution to that. We try to find the solution rather than being guided by ideology.
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'Politics is a tool for strengthening this movement'
Political movement
There was a DERC (Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission) order two years back that the electricity price in Delhi should be reduced by 23 per cent. Sheila Dikshit (Delhi chief minister) sat on that order and she did not allow that order to be passed. Then after two years they passed an order hiking the electricity bill by 100 to 200 percent. There is a clear corruption, a collusion between the private discoms and Sheila Dikshit.
Electoral debut
Yes, we are into politics! It's the very system that forced us to enter into politics. Today if they pass the Lokpal bill, gram swaraj bill, right to reject and right to recall bill we will be away from politics.
We are not entering into politics to acquire power. We are into movement and we will stay in movement. Politics is yet another tool for strengthening this movement. Yes, we will form a political party; some announcement will be made on October 2.
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'All money collected under IAC exhausted'
On offering Rs 2cr cheque to Anna
This is completely wrong news. After the August fast, some in the media talked about the money collected. On November 1, there was a surplus of Rs 1.2 crore not Rs 2 crore. I made a cheque of Rs 1.2 cr in the name of 'Bhrastachar Birodhi Janandolan', which is Anna's NGO and Manish took that cheque to Ralegaon Siddhi on November 1 last year.
Anna said he had full faith and asked us to continue our work. After that whenever there was any news (allegations) I've asked Anna that if you don't have full faith in me, I will step down from PCRF (Public Cause Research Foundation) and someone else can head it. After August last year, for about 8-9 months we did not take any donations. By April-May this year our entire money was exhausted and we had no money to pay our salaries also.
That was the time, in the presence of Annaji, we decided to take donations again. We had put it on our website (asking for donations). But unless there is any activity, no donations come. During the July-August fast some donations came in but that was not enough to pay our expenses. Today, whatever Ramon Magsaysay Award money I had got, which was the seed money, we have broken that fixed deposit and are using it to fund this movement. So we don't have any money now under the name of India Against Corruption. That money was over by April-May this year.
Till the time party is formed we are not taking any decision. Once the party is formed we will start collecting donations in the name of the party.
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