'Aides didn't want Anna Hazare to end fast'

That team Anna’s core team will remain unchanged is bound to disappoint many who have dealt with them and found them “stubborn” and “difficult”.

“In any dialogue, there has to be give and take. The current team Anna refuses to believe in this process,” said a senior Maharashtra official, who has dealt with Anna Hazare both in the distant and recent past.

The official pointed out that it was the government that did most of the ‘giving’ while team Anna had little to show its contribution. “For them it was either our way or no way,” he said. When the government interlocutors met Hazare while he was undertaking his fast in August, Anna was willing to meet the government halfway and end his fast, but was consistently thwarted by his team members, he said.

“They didn’t want Hazare to end his fast.”

Hazare ended his fast only after the government agreed to introduce his Lokpal bill in the next session of Parliament.

After the government’s surrender, members of team Anna refused to bide their time, speaking on the Kashmir issue (Prashant Bhushan) or campaigning against the Congress in Haryana (Arvind Kejriwal).

The government and some newspapers began to probe team Anna members, and the skeletons came tumbling out.