After a day-long fast at the Rajghat on Wednesday against the police action on the Baba Ramdev-led demonstration against corruption, rights activist Anna Hazare threatened another indefinite fast if the government failed to cooperate in drafting the Lokpal Bill.
Addressing the gathering, Mr. Hazare said that as a member of the Joint Drafting Committee (JDC) on the bill he was steadfast in his resolve to have a lokpal in place. Mr. Hazare said if the government failed to cooperate, he would launch an indefinite hunger strike on August 16 at Jantar Mantar, where he sat on a fast in April, and he would not give up till his last breath. He described his present agitation as the second struggle for independence.
Mr. Hazare announced his decision to go to villages to mobilise youth. He had started work in Maharashtra to persuade three lakh young people to join the movement.
He said the government was trying to belittle the civil society members on the Lokpal panel by levelling false allegations against them and setting out a few officers to unearth financial misdeeds. “When we have nothing what are you going to get? This behaviour is not good. Ask us to our face. We'll tell you. But nothing will deter us.”
Senior advocate Shanti Bhushan, who is the JDC co-chairperson, said this was just the first battle. He outlined the next phase of the struggle — to usher in greater reforms in the electoral system and judiciary. Another JDC member, Arvind Kejriwal, was particularly severe on Union Minister Kapil Sibal, wondering why the he was so upset at the names he called the government. “I was not wrong when I called them liars, cheats and conspirators. They released a fake CD, want to keep the Prime Minister out of the purview of the Lokpal and are taking the people for a ride by committing one scam after the other.”
The former IPS officer, Kiran Bedi, said the civil society members had not usurped the political space. They had just filled the void left by the political parties whom they first approached to take up the task of having a lokpal in place.
