Anna Hazare arrested, starts fast; Govt slammed by opposition, public

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi Aug 16, 2011 :  Anna Hazare is under arrest and has been produced before a magistrate. The police action foiled his plan to fast at Delhi’s JP Park, but the 74-year-old has not eaten or even had water since early morning.

 

Mr Hazare’s "preventive arrest" came after three hours of his being under "preventive detention." The Opposition has slammed the government, saying it is Emergency again. The government says it was "a painful duty"; in a very high-level huddle, senior ministers Pranab Mukherjee and P Chidambaram met Rahul Gandhi a little after noon on Tuesday.

At 7.30 am on Tuesday morning, minutes before Mr Hazare was to set out for his fast against corruption, about a dozen policemen in plain clothes detained him at fellow-activist Prashant Bhushan’s residence at Supreme Enclave in Delhi’s Mayur Vihar, where he was staying. 
They tried to whisk him away in a white Innova car, but hundreds of angry protesters ensured that the car could barely move for over an hour.
Mr Hazare, with several of his key aides who are now also under arrest, was taken to the Delhi Police Mess near Oberoi Maiden in north Delhi and was produced before a special executive magistrate there.

Defiance of police orders unacceptable: Chidambaram

Under attack from all quarters, the government has justified the police action on Anna. Home Minister P Chidambaram, not allowed to make a statement in Parliament by a belligerent Opposition, called Anna Hazare’s detention a "painful duty," carried out because of "breach of peace." He was at pains to say that the government was not against peaceful protest, but said Team Anna was detained because it had refused to comply with six of the police’s 22 conditions and made clear that it would defy orders not to hold their protest fast.

"It is unacceptable to defy police conditions...I inform you with regret that this action has been taken." Mr Chidambaram said, adding that Anna and six other people had been detained under Section 151 of the CrPC and taken to the police mess at Alipur road. He said a little over a 1000 people had been detained elsewhere in Delhi and most of them were at the Chhatrasal Stadium in north Delhi. 

Parliament opened to chaos on Tuesday. The BJP gave a notice for suspension of Question Hour to discuss the Anna Hazare issue. The government said it was ready for a discussion after Question Hour, at noon. There was no meeting ground - when Mr Chidambaram offered to make a statement in Parliament, the Opposition said it will settle for nothing less than a statement from the Prime Minister.  The two Houses were repeatedly adjourned, finally for the day.
 
Countrywide crusade

Anticipating arrest, Anna recorded an appeal to people to come forward for what he called the "second freedom struggle" in peaceful protest and said a second line of leaders would continue to lead the movement. But on Tuesday morning, this second line and core members of Team Anna - Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Kiran Bedi- were detained too and taken to the police mess. Eminent lawyer Shanti Bhushan was detained at Rajghat.

A third line of crusading leaders went underground to gather support using mobile phones and social media and surfaced a little before noon to decry Mr Hazare’s arrest and to exhort people to come out in large numbers in protest.  In Mumbai almost a 100 supporters have courted arrest.

In Bangalore, 87,000 of 100,000 IT employees have signed up to join the India Against Corruption movement.  There is massive support in Kolkata too. In Chennai, Mahatma Gandhi’s personal secretary Kalyanam is among about 300 people on hunger strike; 30 people have courted arrest. There are protests in Lucknow and Guwahati too.

In the capital, the supporters that followed Anna’s car as he was being taken away vowed to continue their fight against corruption at Rajghat, where Anna was to have gone before setting out for JP Park where he planned to fast. Delhi Police has imposed Section 144 at several places in the capital, including central Delhi, JP Park, Rajghat and Dilli Gate. At Rajghat, the police is not allowing people to gather in large numbers. Any large groups are being disbanded, put in buses and taken away to Chhatrasal Stadium.

At JP Park, where Anna was to sit on fast, protesters poured in ready to court arrest. Hundreds also gathered at Chattrasal stadium. Activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan said at 4pm today, protesters would march from the Pragati Maidan metro station to JP Park. He also announced that at 4 pm on Wednesday, a big march would be organised from India Gate to Parliament House. He appealed to all people to join the march and asked government employees to take mass leave for a day.

Team Anna has asked people to wear black bands and to use social media and SMSes to help gather more people.

BJP, Left  slam government

The NDA met before Parliament convened today to decide on its strategy and the Opposition has asked for a discussion in Parliament. But in swift reaction to the police action, the BJP slammed the UPA government for detaining Anna Hazare. BJP patriarch L K Advani said he was not surprised at the detention. "I am not surprised at this development. This is the direction in which this government is moving. Instead of dealing with the problem of corruption and owning responsibility, it is trying to find scapegoats and stopping peaceful protests," Advani said.

The Left criticized the detention as an attack on the democratic right to protest peacefully, but the CPI also appealed to Anna Hazare not to fast and to have faith in Parliament.

A CPM statement read: "This is an attack on the democratic rights of citizens to protest peacefully. It shows how the Congress leadership is intolerant to any anti-corruption movement as their government is itself steeped in high-level corruption. The Polit Bureau reiterates that the official Lok Pal Bill presented in parliament is weak and inadequate."


Courtesy : NDTV