New Delhi, December 15: Anna Hazare Thursday threatened to launch an indefinite hunger strike and to protest outside the houses of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi besides announcing a nationwide “Jail Bharo” campaign if parliament did not pass an effective Lokpal bill this season.
Launching a virtual war on the government which failed to reach a consensus with the opposition on a proposed ombudsman to fight corruption, Hazare said the need for a powerful Lokpal was a national cry.
Addressing journalists after meeting his confidants, Hazare said that if time was an issue, then the winter session of parliament, scheduled to end Dec 22, should be extended.
“All those people attached with this movement and who feel strongly about the Jan Lokpal bill will take part in the jail bharo andolan from Jan 1,” he said. “We will fill jails all over the country.”
Hazare said he would go on an indefinite fast from Dec 27 in Delhi or Mumbai. “I will be found outside the homes of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi,” he added, referring to the Congress president and her son.
Demonstrations in support of a powerful Lokpal would also be staged outside the houses of MPs if they did not vote for his version of the Jan Lokpal bill.
And if such a bill was passed, his team would hold a “swagat” (welcome) ceremony at the Ramlila ground, where Anna’s 12-day fast in October led to nationwide support and a near political crisis.
“This is not a question of Anna, this is a national question… It is a question related to the poor,” Anna said, stressing the importance of his version of the Lokpal bill.
He declared that Class 3 and 4 government employees had to be brought under the ambit of the Lokpal.
“We will not accept it otherwise,” Hazare said, adding he would insist on it even if it meant risking his life.
He said the bill had come in parliament eight times but had not yet been passed.
Hazare’s ire came a day after an all-party meeting here Wednesday failed to reach a consensus on key provisions of the Lokpal bill.
Ahead of the meeting, the government was confident of winning over all sections of political opinion on the Lokpal issue.
But as leaders of Congress and 35 major and smaller political parties debated the subject, it became clear that differences between the official line and that of the opposition was huge.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said the government was working on various suggestions that came from the meeting and that it was serious on a Lokpal bill.
Hazare is insistent that the prime minister’s office and all sections of the bureaucracy should come under the ambit of the Lokpal. Team Anna wants Citizen’s Charter and state Lokayuktas too.
–Agencies