Anna Hazare being made a scapegoat by his team: Digvijay Singh

"Simpleton" Anna Hazare is being made a scapegoat to fulfil the political ambitions of some "very smart people" in his own team, senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh has alleged.

The AICC general secretary, who is known for his swipes at Team Anna, said he stands by his every word on the issue and his perception of Hazare is shared by Congress leaders.

He, however, made it clear that it was not discussed with Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

Wondering at the "U-turns" of Hazare on the issue of campaigning against Congress over Lokpal issue, Singh said he was being misused by some of his team members and that he changed his recent stand on not campaigning against any political party under pressure from some of his team members who have high political ambitions.

"He is a simpleton...Anna is a very simple man. He is susceptible to pressures and the all the people around him have their political agenda.... He is highly susceptible to being exploited by smart people," Singh said in a free-wheeling interview to Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN's programme Devil's Advocate

"Poor Anna is being made a scapegoat or a mask to fulfil their agenda because he has greater credibility than them... He is extremely simple (man), who is being exploited by some very wise people with huge political ambitions," he said.

Asked whether he is suggesting that Anna is something more than simple not to understand the gameplan, Singh said, "Baba Ramdev said something more than that. He said he (Hazare) was speaking the truth and he was lying".