Anna Hazare gives govt a poll fright
TNN | Apr 8, 2011, 01.59am IST
NEW DELHI: As veteran social activist Anna Hazare's indefinite fast entered the third day, the Gandhian has almost sounded the poll bugle even though parliamentary elections are a good three years away.
His statement — how he did not want to send the government packing but the public might, if it did not heed his demands — would have, under ordinary circumstances, sounded like an empty threat. However, the impressive turnout, estimated around 35,000, was a pointer towards the popular support to his anti-corruption crusade.
Jantar Mantar, the venue for the outcry against graft, erupted in public applause when Hazare spoke of sending government "home". UPA-II, embarrassed as it is, thanks to successive scams, is deigned to capitulate.
The spontaneous emotional outpouring of a raucous crowd captured the public mood. Anti-graft crusaders are bowled over by Hazare's argument that how politicians should do well to keep the servant-master relationship in mind while dealing with masses.
Speaker after speaker have hit home the point. "Politicians are servants of the people and they should remain as such. If they start thinking of themselves as masters and think that they can get away with whatever they want to do, that is not acceptable. People will bring them down."
Hazare, however, remained firm in his reluctance to head the joint committee for drafting Jan Lokpal Bill even though the crowd tried to make him see reason.
"If I become the chairman, people will say I went on a fast to occupy the post. I have never accepted any position. Let it remain like that. I would personally prefer to be an adviser but if you are too keen, I can become a member," the tireless crusader explained.
Though there was murmurs of protest how that would defeat the purpose, he allayed their fears with a tongue-in-cheek one-liner — "No, no, I will be there to control the government."
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