Anna threatens government to be ready for final battle

Anna Hazare today faced a low turnout as he launched his three-day fast against a "weak" Lokpal Bill asking people to be ready for an aar paar ki ladai (fight to finish) to stamp out corruption and ensure that "goondas" do not enter Parliament.

The 74-year-old Hazare, who sought to sidestep the appeal of his close aides to stop fast due to his health condition, said people will one day teach the government a lesson for the "betrayal" on the Lokpal issue.
In contrast to the impressive gathering at his three protests in Delhi earlier, the numbers were not upto expectations at the MMRDA ground.
Mr Hazare repeated his threat to undertake a tour of five-poll bound states, including Uttar Pradesh, and said he will campaign against the government and do the same when the general elections are announced.
“Humko thay karna hain, aar yaa paar? (We have to decide, this side or that side). Whatever we should do, we should do. We should be ready to go to jail," Mr Hazare told his supporters after starting his fast at 12:30 pm.
Mr Hazare, who is suffering from a viral infection, reached the venue after a two-and-a-half-hour long drive from the guesthouse where he was staying. In between, he also paid respects to Mahatma Gandhi at Juhu Beach.
"Elections have been announced in five states. You and me have to decide whether this betrayal should continue. I will campaign against the government in the five states," he said.
Emphasising that Parliament should retain its dignity, he claimed that 150 MPs in the House were criminals and if there is a Right to Reject provision, they will not get entry into the "sacred temple of democracy".
"Today, goondas and criminals are entering politics... If we have Right to Reject, goondas will not enter this sacred temple (Parliament and Assemblies). We have to ensure that our lawmaking bodies remain sacred," he said. The commencement of Hazare's fast came as Lok Sabha began a debate on Lokpal Bill with government side and opposition sparring over the issue.
Mr Hazare's drive to the protest venue was marked by high drama when around 20 men blocked his convoy and showed him black flags saying that he cannot take the country to ransom.
The convoy of Mr Hazare, on way to Mahatma Gandhi's statue on Juhu beach, was briefly stopped by the protesters shouting “Anna Hazare murdabad”.
Terming his campaign as the second freedom struggle, Mr Hazare said the fight for a strong Lokpal will not end today and one has to fight a long battle.
"You will not get the Lokpal Bill. You need to be ready for a long battle. The elections are coming in five states. After two and half years, the general elections will come. I will campaign against the government and tell people how they cheated us," he said.
Defending his tactics, he said one has to close the nose to make somebody open his mouth.
Mr Hazare alleged that some people were threatening them not to go to the poll-bound states. However, he did not name them. "We will go there. Many people are threatening us that they will do this, they will do that. What will they do?" he said.
Demanding more powers to gram sabhas, Mr Hazare accused the government of forcefully acquiring farmers' land and resorting to lathicharge and opening fire when there is resistance.
"Farmers' land is being acquired without their permission. You don't have powers to acquire land using force. Without gram sabha's permission, you should not acquire land," he said.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/116074" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: &lt;a&gt; &lt;em&gt; &lt;strong&gt; &lt;cite&gt; &lt;code&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;dl&gt; &lt;dt&gt; &lt;dd&gt;</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-d87531b85eb74f3dcf2d3c5cfb7e5ca8" value="form-d87531b85eb74f3dcf2d3c5cfb7e5ca8" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="93030194" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

I want to begin with a little story that was told to me by a leading executive at Aptech. He was exercising in a gym with a lot of younger people.

Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen didn’t make the cut. Neither did Shaji Karun’s Piravi, which bagged 31 international awards.