Book 14 'corrupt' ministers by Aug: Hazare

Raking up a new issue, Anna Hazare today demanded that police cases be registered against 14 “corrupt” Cabinet ministers by August, failing which a “jail bharo” agitation would be launched. He pushed back the deadline for a strong Lok Pal law to 2014.

Hazare’s new plan was declared at a token fast at Jantar Mantar for a strong whistleblowers’ Bill. His aide, Arvind Kejriwal, named 14 Cabinet ministers against whom corruption charges had been levelled. “FIRs should be registered against the corrupt (Union) ministers by August or there will be jail bharo (fill the jail) agitation across the country. We have to be ready for this. The date will be announced later,” Hazare said ending his fast.

Kejriwal named 25 politicians, including ministers Sharad Pawar, S M Krishna, P Chidambaram, Praful Patel, Kapil Sibal, Kamal Nath, Farooq Abdullah, Ajit Singh, Sriprakash Jaiswal, Sushilkumar Shinde, Vilasrao Deshmukh, M K Azhagiri and G K Vasan.

Hazare, whose last hunger strike in Mumbai in December-end last year flopped due to low turnout, also put the government on notice on the Lok Pal issue. “Bring Jan Lok Pal or go out of power in the 2014 general elections,” Hazare said. “We will show the power of the Jan Lok Pal Bill. I am a fakir (saint). I will show them how much strength a fakir like me has.”

Team Anna’s new plan was made clear through a series of speeches by Hazare, Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi and Shanti Bhushan towards the end of the fast. Though Hazare and his team targeted the government, they appeared soft on the Opposition. There were mentions of cases against BJP’s B S Yeddyurappa and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa by Kejriwal.

Earlier in the day, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s name came up while talking about the killing of a whistleblower in his state. Bedi then talked about “getting ready for the fight” during the Delhi Assembly polls next year. In a bid to augment the movement’s momentum and gain more support, Hazare also appeared to overlook reservations against Ramdev over his alleged Hindutva links and declared his supporters would join the yoga guru’s protests and vice versa.

About land acquisition, Hazare said there should a law which should make permission of gram sabha mandatory before selling land to anyone. “There should be a law to ensure that permission is given by the gram sabha before selling land to anyone,” he said.

On protection to whistleblowers, he said, “There will be a big struggle. Then the government will listen. The government came up with MNREGA but these people were killed for trying to improve it.”

His return to staging protests comes after the Congress performed poorly in the recent Assembly polls.

Former Karnataka Lok Ayukta and Team Anna member Santosh Hegde was present, along with Shanti Bhushan, Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi and Manish Sisodia.

Earlier Hazare, after his usual visit to Rajghat before any such protest in Delhi, came to Jantar Mantar at around 11 AM to loud cheers from Tricolour-wielding supporters and chants of “Vande Mataram” and “Bharat Mata ki Jai”.