Jail birds join stir
Anna Hazare has found support from a very strange and unexpected quarter in Kolkata which is certain to warm the cockles of Team Anna.
Several prisoners in the Presidency Central Jail here observed a token fast on Friday by skipping both lunch and dinner, taking the jail authorities by surprise.
Prisoners who sought to follow the ‘Anna Hazare movement’ include drug peddlers, dacoits and even those charged with murders.
For instance, Kamalesh Sharma is a convict in narcotics case; Gulzar alias Shamim has a murder charge against him; Sunil K Singh,Vikram and Ahmed are notorious dacoits.
“We’ve received a proposal from them first; some of the enthusiasts even gave us in writing that they would skip food, expressing their solidarity with the Hazare movement. Initially, it strained our belief a bit, but later we found they’re serious,” Jail Superintendent Biplab Das told Deccan Herald here on Saturday.
They shouted pro-Anna slogans and skipped the lunch comprising rice, dal, vegetable and a curry. They did not report for dinner also on Friday.
Asked if the fast continued on Saturday, Das said some of them “are still not taking food.” Sources in the Presidency Jail said the jail birds-turned-Anna fans first asked for newspapers carrying the news of the fast by the septuagenarian Gandhian for the Jan Lokpal bill.
Three inmates were believed to have influenced others to join the fast, claiming that they too were the victims of this corrupt system that turned them into criminals.
The corruption, they argued, has also been chasing them inside the prison campus.
“If Anna is ready to sacrifice his life for the country, we should take a cue from it and launch fast to extend our support to him,” one of them reportedly exhorted the inmates.
