Parulekar to be part of 3 S Bharat group that aims to work at grassroot level for eradication of corruption

Anti-curruptionu00a0crusader Anna Hazare's former blogger Raju Parulekar is set to join a new forum called 3 S Bharat in the city to fight corruption. The development has raised many eyebrows because the blog Parulekar had created for Hazare had run into much controversy. Parulekar had allegedly stated on the blog that Hazare was unhappy with his core team fighting for the Jan Lokpal bill, which the activist from Ralegansiddhi subsequently called a false piece of information.


Fighting the good fight: (From left) Activist Shirish Kembhavi, and 3
S Bharat founders Pradeep Ravat and Vinay Hardikar. Pic/Vivek Sabnis

Parulekar, a well-known journalist and political analyst, made his stand clear on the blog issue in Delhi before coming to the city. Addressing the media in Delhi, Parulekar on Monday lambasted Hazare's core team members Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi and Prashant Bhushan for involving Hazare in party politics by campaigning against the Congress in the Hissar by-election.

The '3 S' in 3 S Bharat stands for swachha, samarth and samrudha (clean, capable and developed). The forum will be launched in the presence of Dilip Joshi, a retired bank officer, and Shashank Jewlikar, superintendent engineer, MSEDCL, at the Abasaheb Garware College.

"We are welcoming everyone, including Parulekar, to be a part of this forum. He is our friend and one should not forget that Parulekar had voluntarily worked for Hazare and also provided a blog service. We are not concerned with the differences between Parulekar and Hazare," said Pradeep Ravat, a former MP and founder of 3 S Bharat.

Vinay Hardikar, co-founder of 3 S Bharat, said that it was too early to comment on the debate between Parulekar and Hazare. "If both (Parulekar and Hazare) are willing, we are ready to sort out the issues between them. We will not ask Parulekar to create a blog for 3 S Bharat," said Hardikar. "Hazare is fighting against corruption at the top level and we want to do this from the grassroot level.

But we shall not resort to agitations and strikes. Our mission shall start from tax and administration reforms in the government. We are also focusing on judicial reforms with electoral reforms. This is a creative fight against corruption by involving the intellectual class in society."

Forum's agenda
>>u00a0Publishing a white paper on tax reforms.u00a0
>> Establishing a central committee by cocoordinating with Anti-Corruption Bureau.
>>u00a0Organising fests on filmsu00a0 and dramas depicting fight against corruption in city.
>>u00a0Establishing a vigilance committee at local level to monitor land scams in city.
>>u00a0Developing the citizen as the fifth pillar of democracy and creating watchful and thoughtful leadership.
>>u00a0If required, the forum will fight polls or support good, efficient candidates.
Website: www.3sbharat.in