Anna dare: Will court jail if not allowed to fast at Jantar Mantar

Hazare questioned the government’s intentions on the Lokpal Bill and said he was ready to go to jail if he was not allowed to demand for a strong anti-corruption law.

Addressing a press conference here,the noted civil rights activist reacted strongly to the Prime Minister’s justification of keeping his post out of the ambit of Lokpal.

“This statement is unfortunate. Till now,the people of the country and me too felt that we have an honest and non-corrupt Prime Minister,” Hazare said.

“..our fight is not against Parliament but against the government. I have written a letter to him (PM) and even after that if he is saying this,it is unfortunate. Many people in the government are telling lies. The Prime Minister was a good person and even he is telling lies… then what will happen,” he said but did not elaborate.

Singh yesterday said bringing the office of Prime Minister under the ambit of Lokpal would “not be advisable” and the government has taken the decision after “taking all

factors into account”. He had earlier the favoured inclusion of the office of Prime Minister under Lokpal.

Hazare’s supporters also said 85 per cent of the people want the Jan Lokpal Bill (the civil society version) and not the government’s draft of it.

Rubbishing suggestions that he was trying to blackmail the government,he said,“It is not that I am very happy to go on fast. The government is forcing us to sit on fast. Why doesn’t the government bring a strong Lokpal Bill?”

Hazare said scams would not have taken place if the government listened to the voice of the people. “We would not have A Raja committing such corruption if the government had listened to the voice of the people,” he said.

Activist Arvind Kejriwal said police has not informed them about the status of the permission for conducting protests at Jantar Mantar.

Hazare,who addressed the press to give out results of a “referendum” conducted by the civil activists in Chandni Chowk constituency of HRD Minister Kapil Sibal,said overwhelming 85 per cent of people favoured (their version) Jan Lokpal Bill.

He attacked Sibal for alleging that the “referendum” was carried out by Sangh Parivar.

“They sometimes link me with the RSS,sometimes with the BJP. Never in my life have I linked myself with anyone. I am a self-made person,” said the activist who is from Maharashtra.

Claiming that the “interim” results of the referendum showed that an overwhelming 85 per cent of the 72,000 responses counted so far was in favour of the Jan Lokpal Bill,Hazare said he favoured a national referundum on the issue.

On the referendum conducted in Chandni Chowk,Hazare said government will have to listen to the voice of the people.

Kejriwal said,“Seeing these results the question arises,does Kapil Sibal still represent the people of his constituency?”

Team Anna claimed the referendum revealed elected representatives were not voicing their electorate’s wishes. “85 per cent of the people surveyed in Sibal’s constituency have opted in favour of the provisions proposed by Team Anna,” Kejriwal said.

“Four lakh referendum forms were distributed in the constituency,of which 86,000 forms have been collected till now. The referendum forms constituted a questionnaire of 8 questions on components of the Bill. The result of 72,000 forms has been compiled,rest 14,000 could not scanned as they got wet due to rains and will be done manually,” he said.

Kejriwal also alleged that there were attempts to derail their exercise. “There were 30 forms from an area which was fully in favour of government provisions. We approached the respondents through the phone number given in these forms and we were told by them that the RWA president collected the forms from them and he filled it,” he said.

However,he said,they did not exclude these forms from the counting.

Yesterday,Hazare had said he was ready to consider the Delhi Police’s suggestion to opt for a site other than Jantar Mantar for his indefinite fast on the Lokpal Bill issue if all facilities were provided for people to join his protest.

“If you don’t let us protest at Jantar Mantar,then tell us another suitable place? If there is some good place where there are facilities for all the people who join the protest,then we have no problems.

“The issue is that corruption needs to be rooted out. We are not worried about the venue,” Hazare,who reached Delhi Sunday afternoon,said,adding that he was ready to think about an alternative site.

Hazare’s remarks came as Delhi Police suggested that he look for an alternative site in the city’s outskirts like Burari in North Delhi or Ajmal Khan Park in West Delhi if he wants to go ahead with his protest for more than a day.

Reacting to the Lokpal Bill cleared by the Union Cabinet last Thursday,he said the legislation was weak. “This is cheating. People will teach them a lesson,” he said.

He said his protest from August 16 is not against Parliament but against the “weak bill”.

Delhi Police has said they have not taken a final view on giving permission to Hazare’s protest at Jantar Mantar and are awaiting reply from his team on certain points raised by it.

In a letter sent to the Hazare team which sought permission for the protest starting from August 16,police have asked them to clarify how many days they propose to sit on dharna and the expected number of people who will gather at the protest site.

A senior police official said they have told the Hazare team in the letter that police could give permission to the Gandhian to hold the protest at Jantar Mantar if it is for a day which could see a participation of not more than 2,000 people.

“We have neither granted permission nor denied it as of now. We are awaiting reply from them to our letter sent 10 days ago,” a senior police official said.

Delhi Police has cited a 2009 order of the Supreme Court and has said that they cannot give permission for indefinite dharna anywhere in Delhi including in Jantar Mantar as Parliament would be in session beginning August 1.

Police authorities said that no one group can be allowed to capture the entire space at Jantar Mantar as many groups conduct protests during this period (Parliament Session).