The Anna magic was back in evidence on Sunday as thousands gathered at Jantar Mantar to show solidarity with the veteran Gandhian in his fight for a strong Lokpal bill.
Team Anna members were all smiles as the crowd swelled by the hour.
While Kiran Bedi and Arvind Kejriwal took turns to launch a scathing
attack on the government while addressing the crowd, a rejuvenated Anna
Hazare said the government should vacate office in 2014 if it could not
bring a strong Lokpal bill.
It was not clear, though, if the
Mumbai flop show three months ago spurred Hazare to give the government
time till the next general elections. Before starting his token fast for
a day, Hazare said many people have sacrificed their lives while
fighting corruption.
“Their (whistleblowers’) mothers, their
children, their fathers, their wives are crying for justice. But this
government has gone dumb and deaf. It is not listening to the cries of
people,” he said.
Hazare demanded that FIRs be registered against
14 “corrupt” cabinet ministers by August failing which Team Anna would
launch a “jail bharo andolan” across the country. “We have to be ready
for this. Dates will be announced later,” he said. “Twenty-five people
were murdered for fighting against corruption. We have been stressing on
a law to protect whistleblowers; but the government doesn’t seem to be
ready.”
Sunday’s fast, called in the wake of the murder of IPS
officer Narendra Kumar by the mining mafia in Madhya Pradesh on March 8,
comes two days after an inconclusive all-party meeting on the Lokpal
bill at prime minister Manmohan Singh’s residence at 7, Race Course
Road.
Family members of Kumar and other whistleblowers narrated
their experiences to the crowd. Also, giant screens kept telecasting
short clips on 25 whistleblowers who have been killed while fighting
corruption.
Kumar’s uncle Rajkumar told the crowd that his nephew
always fought corruption; and that is why he started investigating cases
of illegal mining himself instead of sending any junior. Kumar was
killed around 1.30pm and “strangely his post-mortem was over within four
hours”.
Mahendra Kumar Sharma was killed for exposing
irregularities in the National Rural Health Mission in Uttar Pradesh.
His son Tushar said “senior officers in the administration have
threatened us with dire consequences if we name big shots”. “No one is
bothered about us,” he said. “The honest officer was killed just because
he was doing his duty to save public money. Members of Team Anna are
the only people who have approached us till now. I completely support
their movement… a strong Lokpal will protect whistleblowers like my
father.”
Also, key Team Anna members used the occasion to
emphasise that their fight was not against any particular party [the
Congress] but against the political class in general. Cases against
BJP’s BS Yeddyurappa and Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa were
also highlighted. Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi’s name figured
while talking about the killing of whistleblower Amit Jethwa in the
state.
Kiran Bedi announced that the Delhi assembly polls, due
next year, would be Team Anna’s fresh target. “We have to get ready for
the important fight in the country’s national capital,” she said.
Jantar
Mantar was teeming with people in Anna caps holding the Tricolour even
before Hazare appeared on the dais a little after eleven in the morning,
shouting “Vande Mataram, Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Inquilab Zindabad”.
Before
finishing his speech Hazare vowed to continue his fight for a strong
Lokpal. “We will show them [the government] people’s power in the 2014
elections. Not just this, we would fight to get the right to reject as
well,” he said.
Justice Santosh Hegde, Shanti Bhushan and Manish Sisodia too were present.
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