Rajiv a rare politician, Rahul warned me of a shark-infested system, reveals Arvind Kejriwal

New Delhi, Oct 13: India Against Corruption activist Arvind Kejriwal, presently carrying out a campaign against Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra's business dealings, has in an interview to The Economic Times has said that Rahul Gandhi once told him, " sharks would bring down the government if it tried to give control of funds directly to the people."Kejriwal praised former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi as "the rare politician who understood India's problems."Kejriwal said he met Rahul Gandhi 3-4 years ago and the two had discussed the ineffectiveness of government schemes, meant for helping the poor, but are often pocketed by middlemen. The anti-corruption crusader said, when he asked Rahul why all welfare schemes should be made in Delhi, he replied, he was aware of the problem. "He said, you know the kind of sharks that are there around each of these schemes. The moment I withdraw one scheme, the government will fall. "Because for each of these schemes, there are many ministers and parties who are involved," Kejriwal quoted Rahul Gandhi as saying. Kejriwal said: "He (Rahul) cannot do much. He is part of this system." "There is just one politician perhaps who understood the problems of this country. And that was Rajiv Gandhi. "He had introduced constitutional amendments to empower the people through panchayats", Kejriwal said . Asked what solutions he had in mind about the problems facing India, Kejriwal said: " India suffered from too much centralisation of power in Delhi, and creation of policies and schemes divorced from what people actually wanted." Kejriwal is in favour of leaving decision-making on issues such as building village schools, hospitals and roads or even on issues such as allowing foreign retailers such as Walmart to enter India, to local bodies like Panchayats or local governments. Kejriwal said he had no specific economic agenda to reveal at the moment. "If I start taking decisions, there is no difference between the existing system and the system that we are proposing". He said, his priority was to change the system. "I think the economics of this country is intricately linked to the politics of this country and the two cannot be separated. " It will be very easy for me to say poverty and this and that, but these are all symptoms I believe", he said. "So I think we need to tackle the politics first and completely decentralise the decision-making process, if we want to tackle the economics of this country". Asked about which direction his proposed political party was going to take, Kejriwal replied: :I don't care if it would be to the right or left of the political centre. "We just know if there is a problem, let's try and find a solution. "If you can find it to the left of centre, you take it from there; if you can find it the right of centre, you take it from there." Kejriwal claimed that after his expose on DLF and Vadra, he has started getting information on various companies and political leaders from across the country, notably from bureaucrats, some of whom were very senior. Kejriwal,who won the Magsaysay Award in 2006,has been espousing a range of public causes,first coming into national consciousness with his espousal of the Right to Information legislation and in recent years with his demand for a Jan Lokpal Bill to combat graft. After months of leading a high-octane campaign together with Gandhian social activist Anna Hazare,the two fell out over the future direction of the movement once Kejriwal decided to enter electoral politics.A few days after he announced the formation of the party,last Friday,Kejriwal sent shivers across the countrys political system by highlighting what he said were corrupt business dealings between Robert Vadra and Indias biggest real estate firm DLF,in the process taking his fight straight to the doorsteps of the Gandhi family that has given India two prime ministers and is readying a third (Rahul Gandhi) to take over.

Rajiv a rare politician, Rahul warned me of a shark-infested system, reveals Arvind Kejriwal

New Delhi, Oct 13: India Against Corruption activist Arvind Kejriwal, presently carrying out a campaign against Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra's business dealings, has in an interview to The Economic Times has said

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