Anna Hazare is angry like Pranab Mukherjee. Like Manmohan Singh's ministers, Hazare's team is no different. So Anna has expressed his anger over undue expenditure by India Against Corruption. He has taken exception to not being kept informed about how much money has been collected from the public and how much money has been spent on what and why.
Hazare said this in a strongly-worded letter to his close colleague and member of IAC Arvind Kejriwal. This is the first time when Hazare has written such an angry letter to a prominent member of his core group. Significantly, Hazare has said that he is writing the letter after receiving an email from another core group member Kiran Bedi wherein the retired Indian Police Service officer has said that PCRF (Public Cause Research Foundation) must make its budget and clearly mention how much money is going to be spent on what account.
In the May 3, 2012 letter, written in Hindi, Hazare has said too much money is being spent on the PCRF staff and cautioned Kejriwal that the PCRF funds have come from the public and thus the money must be spent judiciously. The PCRF is a Delhi-based NGO set up by Kejriwal on December 19, 2006. Both Kejriwal and Bedi are Magsaysay awardees.
Hazare has stressed for the need for more transparency in the donations received and the expenditure and has even called for austerity measures reducing unnecessary expenditure from the budget. He has pointed out that there has been no meeting of the core committee since August 16 last and remarked thus:” After Aug 16th, the core committee has met many times, but I am also not aware, so how will the committee or the public understand? I am not happy with the current state, and upon asking questions, it is said that allegations are being made. This is not correct“.
Kejriwals NGO, PCRF, which is collecting all the funds is spending too much of the people’s money on PCRF’s staff and its activities. No details of funds collected or expenses incurred have been provided to Hazare or the core committee. “Only the Audit report is not enough. Even 5 rupees spent must be put in front of the Core Committee. Expenditure must happen only where necessary, but to spend money where it is not needed is not correct,” Hazare has said in his letter.
