India’s Sonia Gandhi takes on anti-corruption movement
In this photograph taken on October 2, 2011, chairperson of India’s Congress-led UPA government Sonia Gandhi looks on after paying her respects at the memorial to the father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat in New Delhi, in honour of Gandhi’s 143rd birth anniversary. Poor health forced Sonia Gandhi, to cancel plans to make her first public speech on November 9, 2011, since undergoing surgery abroad in August, a party spokesman said.
Despite being ill, Sonia Gandhi picked up the gauntlet thrown down by Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement Wednesday, accusing the protesters of a hidden political agenda.
It was the first time that Gandhi has questioned the activist's intentions, according to the Calcutta Telegraph. But the Congress party president had to do so by remote control, as she could not attend her first public rally after returning from surgery in the U.S. because she is suffering from a viral fever.
“Everybody can pursue his or her own political agenda but should also rise above personal interests to think about the nation,” the paper quoted Gandhi as saying. She also questioned the continued uproar over Hazare's proposed anti-corruption bill, asking “why so much noise had been generated when the Prime Minister and the Congress are committed to a strong bill and the matter is in Parliament”.
She also hit out at Team Anna's apparent double standard, hinting obliquely at various members of Hazare's entourage that have been called to account for misappropriating funds and failing to pay dues owed to the government.
"Corruption cannot be fought by thinking that corruption by us and our people is a pious act while that of others is corruption. This is what is happening these days," she said, according to the Times of India.
The Congress president’s speech was read out by a party MP at a rally in Uttarakhand where Gandhi was supposed to lay the foundation of a railway project.