IAC was well-planned conspiracy against Congress: Maken

Terming India Against Corruption (IAC) movement as "nothing but a well-planned conspiracy against Congress", the grand old party Friday said Arvind Kejriwal and Kiren Bedi were befooling people.

Congress leader Ajay Maken at a press conference here said it was a "drama" which was unfolding with the passage of time.

He played clippings of a TV channel before the journalists, showing how AAP leaders like Kumar Vishwas and others were revealing the "truth and the real intention of Kejriwal and Bedi, who were then projecting themselves as the crusaders against corruption".

"It was a conspiracy. It was not a movement against corruption but a movement against the Congress and people like Kejriwal and Bedi had hidden agendas...their own colleagues are saying this," Maken said.

Maken cited Vishwas, whom a TV show quoted as saying that Kiran Bedi former army chief Gen. V.K. Singh kept insisting to Anna Hazare, who then headed the IAC, that they must not talk about the BJP but concentrate on and criticise only the Congress only.

Bedi is now the BJP's chief ministerial candidate for Delhi, and V.K.Singh is a minister in the BJP-led central government of Narendra Modi.

The Congress leader also alleged that the "so-called IAC" was being staged with the help of the BJP to present the Congress and UPA government in "bad light".

"It was with the help of the BJP that they organised this movement. Congress wants to ask if Kejriwal or Bedi would come forward and clarify (what is being said by Vishwas)," Maken said. "It was a well-planned conspiracy against Congress and the UPA government."

Maken also asked the AAP chief to clarify allegations by one of its founding members, Shanti Bhushan, that party election tickets were being sold for money, and if he was a dictator, as was being said.

On being asked whether Hazare was also involved in their "game plan", the Congress leader said he was "unaware and was being misled".