Gadkari sore with Narayanasamy for calling Team Anna members' anti-national

New Delhi, June 9 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Nitin Gadkari on Saturday criticized Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office (PMO) V. Narayanasamy for calling veteran social activist Anna Hazare's associates as anti-national.

"It is not appropriate to call anybody anti-national. There could be differences of opinion in the country. If somebody had launched an agitation against the government, it is not justified to call him anti-national," added Gadkari.

Narayanasamy earlier in the day said Anna Hazare was surrounded by anti-national elements.

"As far as Anna Hazare is concerned, he has been surrounded by anti-national elements. Some are supported by some foreign forces. And therefore, Anna Hazare has been changing his version all the time," Narayanasamy told media in Chennai.

"Because as far as the honourable Prime Minster is concerned, he is a clean person, he has got impeccable integrity and the Prime Minister has got a reputation in the whole world and nobody can question his integrity. These, not only Anna Hazare, even the people of this country know," he added, while defending Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh over Team Anna suspecting his role in the allocation of coal blocks.

Hazare had earlier last night made a U-turn and gave a clean chit to the Prime Minister on corruption charges against him.

Addressing a rally last night as part of his tour to create awareness about a strong Lokpal, the anti-corruption crusader softened his stand on the Prime Minister and instead appeared to blame Sonia Gandhi, without naming her.

"Manmohan Singh is an honest person and there is no direct proof of his involvement in corruption. However, there is a certain remote control which dictates decisions to him and so there is an air of suspicion around him," he said.

Anna Hazare had earlier said he suspected whether the Prime Minister is clean after going through the CAG report on coal allocation and the file prepared by his team members.

"I have seen the papers, I have suspicion. I had always thought that he was a clean Prime Minister, but after reading the files I doubt there is something wrong," he said. (ANI)