<p>Though the agitators were non-violent, they launched a verbal broadside against the ruling leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress party president Sonia Gandhi and Human Resources Minister Kapil Sibal, who topped the hit list.<br /><br />If anti-establishment slogans dubbed Sonia, Rahul Gandhi and Singh “thieves” for jailing Anna along with “corrupt” leaders like Suresh Kalmadi of CWG scam disfame, Kapil Sibal became a “villain” for being in the forefront of the dialogue between Anna and the government during the joint drafting committee debate on the Lokpal Bill.<br /><br />Braving the scorching sun and humidity, predominantly lower and middle class people of the capital gathered at the famous India Gate at 4 pm and marched towards Parliament through Kasturba Gandhi Marg, Tolstoy Marg and Jantar Mantar, to converge at a public meeting on Parliament Street.<br /><br />Curious tourist<br /><br />Eva, a tourist from Texas in USA, joined the march out of curiosity and said even if she did not know the cause, the spirit was luring.<br /><br />The popular support was a testimony to the emotional chord that Anna had struck with the local people within the short span of his stay in Delhi. While students of a slum school in Trilokpuri of east Delhi had skipped classes to be there along with their teacher, IT engineer Nitin availed half-a-day’s leave from his MNC job to “contribute to this noble cause”.<br /><br />In the eyes of the common man, Anna was the anti-graft warrior and the country’s leaders ‘murderers of democracy’. Young housewife Shalini from Shahadara, bearing her four-year-old baby Naisha in her arms, wanted to know why a person like Anna should be put in jail. <br /></p>
<p>Though the agitators were non-violent, they launched a verbal broadside against the ruling leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress party president Sonia Gandhi and Human Resources Minister Kapil Sibal, who topped the hit list.<br /><br />If anti-establishment slogans dubbed Sonia, Rahul Gandhi and Singh “thieves” for jailing Anna along with “corrupt” leaders like Suresh Kalmadi of CWG scam disfame, Kapil Sibal became a “villain” for being in the forefront of the dialogue between Anna and the government during the joint drafting committee debate on the Lokpal Bill.<br /><br />Braving the scorching sun and humidity, predominantly lower and middle class people of the capital gathered at the famous India Gate at 4 pm and marched towards Parliament through Kasturba Gandhi Marg, Tolstoy Marg and Jantar Mantar, to converge at a public meeting on Parliament Street.<br /><br />Curious tourist<br /><br />Eva, a tourist from Texas in USA, joined the march out of curiosity and said even if she did not know the cause, the spirit was luring.<br /><br />The popular support was a testimony to the emotional chord that Anna had struck with the local people within the short span of his stay in Delhi. While students of a slum school in Trilokpuri of east Delhi had skipped classes to be there along with their teacher, IT engineer Nitin availed half-a-day’s leave from his MNC job to “contribute to this noble cause”.<br /><br />In the eyes of the common man, Anna was the anti-graft warrior and the country’s leaders ‘murderers of democracy’. Young housewife Shalini from Shahadara, bearing her four-year-old baby Naisha in her arms, wanted to know why a person like Anna should be put in jail. <br /></p>
