In the two weeks he spent behind bars, a prisoner of his conscience, Anna dealt a body-blow to the Sena-BJP Government. From Bal Thackeray to Manohar Joshi to all their ministers, the elderly, frail man had everyone squirming.

As crowds collected outside the jail and people began to stage relay hunger-strikes, the powers that be tried everything. Even preventing people from visiting him in jail. But today, unnerved by the public support for him, the State Government ordered his release. Anna in jail had become a terrible embarrassment. Outside, Hazare was unmoved. ``There is no change in my stand,'' he said. ``Babanrao Gholap is guilty.''

Hazare had accused the Social Welfare Minister of corrupt dealings in the purchase of powerloom machinery for nomadic tribes besides massive land deals entered into by the minister's wife Shashikala in Nashik. A Mumbai court had found Hazare guilty of levelling charges of corruption without concrete proof and sentenced him to three months' simple imprisonment.

``Neither the Government, nor the court has touched the evidence submitted by us on the case,'' Hazare said today, adding that the case was lost on purely technical grounds.

He said he plans to participate in the anguli nirdesh

(Finger-pointing) agitation planned on October 2 by his supporters. ``Today, the situation has deteriorated to such an extent that it has become very difficult for the common man to survive,'' he said. The crusader called for laws on ``right to information,'' pointing out that such laws would at least, put a stop to ``corruption in public distribution system where corruption in essential commodities like kerosene and edible oils is rampant.''

Hazare said he was surprised at his release. ``I had no inkling of this. I was suddenly told by the jailer that I was to be released. I immediately told him I did not want any obligation by the Government and am ready to complete the three-month sentence. But the jailer insisted that he had orders from the Government and he had to follow them. So I had little option,'' he said.

People will not let the Government forget this easily. ``Anna is a satyagrahi

. It makes no difference whether the Manohar Joshi Government keeps him behind bars or lets him go. The peoples' movement against corruption will not stop,'' maintains the octogenarian socialist G.P.Pradhan.

``Anna's case is a fitting example of using the law to legitimise immorality,'' points out constitutional expert and jurist Satyaranjan Sathe, a former principal of the Law College here. ``By accepting the court sentence, Anna gave a new spin to the crusade against corruption,'' Sathe maintains.

Others like Pradhan say that when Anna opted for a jail term, he not only drew great admiration but triggered anger against the State and its system. ``It was an imbalance. A common man like Anna was being asked to prove charges without any access to relevant papers which could form the evidence. And how far was it correct to allow a public figure like Gholap to avail of the defences available against a common person for his private affairs?'' adds Sathe.

He quotes a Supreme Court bench which had questioned the propriety of leaving on the complainant the onus of proving corruption charges against those in power. The accused, Sathe says, should be able to show that he was innocent--and show that beyond reasonable doubt.

Some of Anna's well-wishers feel that the Gholap episode should make him wiser. They say he failed, in a way, as a strategist. They want Anna to be better prepared in his war against corruption, gathering all that the law calls evidence.