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Aruna’s stand on Anna irks some activists: Noted activist Aruna Roy’s statements against Anna Hazare’s campaign has angered some of her former supporters, who called her non-Indian, arrogant and a Congress supporter on Saturday. The protesters holding up banners saying, “We want our Indian Aruna Roy, we don’t want Congress Aruna” outside the Shiv Charan Mathur Research Institute, where Roy was briefing the media on NCPRI’s stand on Lokpal bill. Roy had strongly expressed her difference with Anna’s anti-graft bill presented in Parliament. Civil society activist Rajesh Goyal, leading this protest, claimed to have shared a com- mon platform with Aruna and regard her as a ‘national asset’. The next minute he called her ‘arrogant and agitated’ over Anna becoming a nation’s face for this cause. “I agree Arunaji had sown the seeds of this cause but if others have also joined the bandwagon and fighting for this cause what’s the harm in this.” Protesters alleged she was acting on behalf of the Congress government to weaken the movement. “She is holding the position in the National Advisory Council (NAC) headed by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. It raises doubts in the mind of the common people who see Arunaji as a national asset,” said Gopeswar Gupta, another civil society activist. People Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) Kavita Srivastava slammed protesters and called them acting on former US President George W Bush doctrine of ‘either you are with us or with them’. Roy was saddened by the remarks of protesters. She said, “If they think I am a non- Indian for raising my concern against the government and Anna’s bill, I will continue to raise my voice for the people of India.”

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