Crowds keep away from Team Anna fast

Unlike in the past, crowds that had thronged the protest venue were missing this time and the count at its peak in the evening was somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000. The organisers issued appeals to "mothers, wives and daughters" to flock to the protest site at Jantar Mantar tomorrow.

Hazare appeared not in sync with his close aides levelling allegations against Mukherjee, who was sworn in as the new President, when he congratulated him on assuming the highest Constitutional office.

"He is the top most person in the country by becoming the President. I congratulate him," Hazare told reporters here and refused to talk about the allegations raised by Team Anna against him, saying, "I do not want to speak about it."

In his speech also at the protest venue, he did not speak about Mukherjee or Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Team Anna had even masked the photograph of Mukherjee in a collage at the site in a symbolic protest, alleging Congress has managed to put the 'chadar' (veil) of Constitution on the President, who has the immunity against any investigation.

Hazare's aides also avoided any attack on Mukherjee during the day but trained guns at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, with Shanti Bhushan and Kiran Bedi alleging that there is a "leadership failure" on his part and he cannot shy away from responsibility arguing that he is not personally corrupt.

They also took a dig at Ministers for their reactions on protest. "We respected the Prime Minister and we still respect him. Where is leadership? There is a leadership failure. He has to honour the spirit of the letter promising three demands on Lokpal," Bedi said. (More)