A Former National Committee Member of Anna Hazare’s India Against Corruption movement has made a stunning disclosure: that the 2011 Anna Hazare Movement was allegedly orchestrated by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In an exclusive interview with The News Minute, Chandra Mohan divulged critical details about how the right-wing forces were allegedly behind the protest, which altered the political dynamics of the country and remained a crucial reason behind the downfall of the Congress-led union government. Chandra Mohan made this disclosure on TNM’s Yen Endra Kelvi show.
Anna Hazare’s 2011 movement against corruption and its origins have been the subject of ongoing debate in political circles. The moment helped the BJP craft a strong anti-corruption narrative that brought the party back to power with a thumping majority in the 2014 general elections. Even after nine years, the BJP continues to leverage the anti-corruption narrative to target the opposition.
Speaking to TNM, Chandra Mohan said that after completing his studies in the US, he was shocked to see the amount of corruption in the country and was attracted towards Anna Hazare’s movement. “There were so many scams in India. First, it was the CWG scam. Once that came into the limelight, we were all quite shocked, obviously, like everybody else in the country. And then came the so-called 2G scam. And so, the numbers were so huge, we were flabbergasted, and we were like, something has to be done. So that is how we joined the movement in 2011,” he recalled.
The India Against Corruption Movement attracted widespread attention across the country, and many youngsters had joined the protest seeking a strong Jan Lok Pal Bill (an independent organisation to investigate corruption). Chandra Mohan told TNM that the activists who participated in the movement had no idea that right-wing forces were behind the protest and orchestrating the movement from behind the scenes. “In hindsight, everything seems very easy to see. But at that point in time, nobody thought this movement was probably backed by, let's say, the right-wing, or the Hindutva agenda. We didn't feel that, but then after time went by, I actually started to question a lot of things in the movement. It started to bother you because even though we had a national core committee, we had representatives in the committee who were openly supporting the BJP," Mohan added.
Chandra Mohan was one of the 30 activists who were selected from across the country to spearhead the India Against Corruption movement in their respective states, and he was inducted into the National Committee. Similarly, a lot of young volunteers who had signed up to join the movement with the intention of fighting corruption feel let down, he said. “The movement, of course, transformed the lives of so many people who became activists, but it also gave way to a monstrosity. That is there right now in the form of a BJP government. The movement paved the way for such a huge win for the BJP. Now that you hear the then CAG Vinod Rai say that he lied about the 2G scam and the numbers and all that, you feel completely cheated and you feel you have been manipulated,” he said.
Chandra Mohan said that a large part of his activism now is to not only fight against corruption but also against the right-wing forces and their agenda. Terming the BJP’s claims of fighting corruption a farce, Chandra Mohan alleged that PM Modi has indulged in corruption by not revealing the source of funds received in the PM Cares and Electoral Bonds schemes.