Anna's 'indefinite' fast elicits big response
Anna Hazare on Sunday started his indefinite fast at Jantar Mantar amid impressive public response.
Aggressive as ever, he attacked the government for not establishing a strong institution of Lokpal and vowed to fight till death for his cause.
The poor turnout witnessed at Jantar Mantar which marked three days of indefinite fast by his team members, Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Gopal Raigave way to large crowds on Sunday.
The 75-year-old activist asked people not to worry about his health as people will not let him die. “I am ready to sacrifice my life for the cause. I am confident that people will not let me die.”
He accused the government of betraying him three times. He referred to 15 ministers of the Manmohan Singh government who are listed by his team as corrupt and said they were blocking the passage of a strong Lokpal Bill.
He asserted that his movement was to awaken the people to the fact that they were the real masters and politicians their servants.
He refuted the charge that he had deviated from his path and said: “It is the government which is moving away from its path. Our main demand is to get the Jan Lokpal Bill passed.”
Later, team member and senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan emphasised the demand of setting up of Special Investigating Team to probe allegations of corruptions against 15 ministers. He dwelt upon allegations against three of the 15 ministers, Sharad Pawar, Kamalnath and S M Krishna and said all three had caused crores of loss to the state exchequer through scams.
Referendum
Bhushan asked for conducting referendum on major issues. He said India was defying the UN convention on corruption by not passing a strong Lokpal Bill.
Anna released Arvind Kejriwal’s book “Swaraj” which seeks a system based on decentralisation of power.
Team Anna also expressed its disapproval on Baba Ramdev’s meeting with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Team Anna’s associate from Uttar Pradesh Sanjay Singh termed Modi a “murderer of humanity”.
“We were never in agreement with Modi. We are not in agreement with Modi now. Narendra Modi is a murderer of humanity. Ramdev will have to clarify on this issue,” Singh told reporters. Claiming that Hazare had already made his views clear on Modi, Singh also said that the Gujarat chief minister had not passed a strong Lokayukta bill in the state.
