Anna's ideas of 'Gandhism' are unconvincing: MPCC

Mumbai: When Anna Hazare says that Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi should be hanged if found guilty, it does not highlight the severity of the alleged misdeed of the former, but only exposes the superficiality of this 'modern Gandhi', Maharashtra Congress has said.

"Hazare is quite in character when he says something like this (that Singhvi should be hanged if found guilty). After all, he was the one, who supported binding drunk men to poles and thrashing them," Sachin Sawant, spokesperson of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) said.

"Hazare has no moral right to swear by the name of Gandhiji as long as he harbours extremist tendencies like beating people, expressing pleasure if someone slaps someone else, pronouncing judgments on the issues he is not qualified to speak upon and bad mouthing political leaders and bureaucrats," Sawant said.

Gandhiji believed in changing people\'s mindset instead of condemning them, Sachin Sawant said.

One shudders to think about the fate of the nation if such people are allowed to influence state policies, he said. "We can only hope that the saffron brigade realises the danger of manipulating Team Anna from behind the screen, as it will boomerang on them ultimately," he added.

Gandhiji believed in changing people's mindset instead of condemning them, Sawant said adding that Gandhiji's spiritual ideas governed his public life.

Anna's fight against corruption is marred by his proximity to saffron idealists, which Gandhiji never would have associated with for any reason. Hence rather than going to Gandhiji's Samadhi for 'Chintan' and putting up his photograph on stage, it would be better if Anna studies Gandhi afresh and also tries to inculcate his principles, else history will say that this was the worst kind of imitation of Gandhi, Sawant said.

Hazare, who is currently touring the state for a stronger Lokayukta Act, yesterday said in Beed that Singhvi should be hanged if found "guilty" in connection with the controversial CD purportedly showing him in a compromising position with a woman.

"Singhvi should be hanged if found guilty," Hazare had said. Singhvi, who quit as Congress spokesperson after the scandal broke out, had however maintained that the CD was fake.

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