In an exclusive interview with CNN IBN activist Arundhati Roy
reveals that even though Anna Hazare was propped up as the saint of the
masses, he was not the driver of the movement. The anti-corruption
movement, she says, is actually an agenda of multi-national corporations
to increase the penetration of international capital in India.
Roy, who had earlier termed Anna’s movement as a ‘Gandhian coup’ ,
expressed deep concern over Anna’s team members running NGOs funded by
multinational corporations, not all of which are clean on the corruption
front. She had written in a Hindu column on 21 August 2011: “Kabir, run
by Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, key figures in Team Anna, has
received $400,000 from the Ford Foundation in the last three years.”
Kejriwal, an RTI activist, told Firstpost via sms that he had no comment, but asked ‘where is the proof’?
While voicing her anguish over why NGOs funded by World Bank and Ford
are partcipating in mediating public policy, she said “Three of Anna’s
core members ( Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi and Manish Sisodia) are
Magsaysay award winners which are endowed by the Ford Foundation and
Rockefeller.” She added that World Bank alone runs 600
anti-corruption programmes in Sub-Saharan countries as a means to
increase the penetrations of foreign capital.
She said there are serious concerns over the Jan Lokpal Bill because
it does not talk about corporate corruption or how NGOs and
corporations are taking over the traditional role of the government.
Roy said the main reason why she is so skeptical of Anna’s movement was because it was a ‘copy book of the World Bank agenda’.
Watch video: Roy said there are serious concerns about the Jan Lokpal Bill, corporate funders, NGOs and even the role of media.