Hazare team burns copies of Lok Pal Bill

Anna Hazare and his civil society camp members burnt copies of the Lok Pal Bill introduced by the government in Parliament today, calling the legislation "weak, anti-poor and anti-Dalit."

The protest action in the National Capital Region (NCR) and in Hazare's native Ralegaon Siddhi village in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district evoked a sharp condemnation from the government which said it was an  "insult and affront" to Parliament.

Team Anna said it will burn drafts of the Bill till August 16 when Hazare has decided to launch an indefinite agitation against the Bill.

The Gandhian said he would go ahead with his fast in New Delhi till a "strong" Lok Pal Bill is brought in. The Hazare camp is protesting the exclusion of several recommendations made by it on the Bill.

Hazare and his supporters burnt copies of the Bill in Ralegaon Siddhi village while his associates Arvind Kejriwal, Prashant Bhushan and Kiran Bedi led the protest in Kaushambi area in Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh.

Amidst slogan shouting  against the government, Hazare said it was the last chance to eradicate corruption from the country and that the protest should be organised all over to ensure that a strong Lok Pal Bill is enacted.

"This is a bad and weak Bill which is introduced in Parliament. We need a new and strong Bill. I trusted them when they said they will bring a strong law and ended my fast in April. They cheated me.

"But at the protest starting from August 16, I am not going to withdraw from my fast on some assurances. What we need is a strong Bill," he said.

In New Delhi, Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, who is a member of the joint drafting committee on the Lok Pal Bill, said the Bill is now a property of Parliament and the act of burning its copies was an "insult and affront to Parliament".

Sibal said the Hazare camp should have taken recourse to Parliamentary procedures to flag their concerns.