Social activist Anna Hazare and his supporters will sit on a day-long fast tomorrow, but not at Jantar Mantar as planned. They have been told by the government to shift their venue to Rajghat — the memorial to Mahatma Gandhi — and have complied after expending considerable fire and brimstone earlier.
Earlier, Arvind Kejriwal, an RTI activist and a supporter of Hazare, said they would go ahead with their protest at Jantar Mantar and court arrest if police obstructed them. “No one can stop Anna Hazare from protesting at Jantar Mantar tomorrow,” he said.
The fast, a gesture to protest against the police action against the supporters of yoga guru Ramdev last Saturday, was billed as a “very peaceful” protest from 10 am to 7 pm including an all-religion prayer meeting and a debate on the Lok Pal Bill at Jantar Mantar.
As is the procedure, lawyer Shanti Bhushan wrote to Delhi Police on behalf of the Hazare-led team seeking permission for the protest, said the incident in Ramlila Maidan on Saturday was a “blot on democracy” and it was the right of the public to protest.
But the police had on Sunday imposed Section 144 in Jantar Mantar and other areas in New Delhi district following the midnight police action at Ramlila Maidan where Baba Ramdev and his supporters were on an indefinite protest demanding the government must bring back the black money stashed away abroad, among other things. Hazare, Kejriwal, father-son duo Shanti and Prakash Bhushan, and Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde represent the civil society in a joint committee formed to draft the Lok Pal Bill.
In his letter, Bhushan said, “We are informing you and cautioning you that this re-imposition of Section 144 again in Central Delhi in the absence of any emergent situation which imminently threatens to breach of peace, is a clear violation of Citizen’s Charter.”
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“We are putting you on notice that we intend to go ahead with the fast on June 8 which will be totally peaceful and any attempt to prevent the people from reaching Jantar Mantar would be viewed as a serious violation of fundamental democratic rights of the people. We hope the Delhi Police will desist from any such attempt,” he said.
But Delhi Police refused permission for their day-long fast. At first, the group decided to defy prohibitory orders. “This (imposition of 144) is not acceptable. We appeal to the people to be calm tomorrow when they come to Jantar Mantar. We will stop wherever police tries to stop us. After that few people can get arrested, others can go home,” Bhushan said. He said Hazare’s call was for a fast and this should not lead to a law and order situation.
“Anna is a 73-year-old man and has never provoked anyone. He never had a violent history. Now he says, he wants to assemble peacefully, what is the need of Section 144. If police tries to stop us, we will not resist but just offer ourselves for being arrested,” Kejriwal said. Alleging that government had arbitrarily imposed Section 144, Kejriwal said there had been Supreme Court orders stating that the section should not be misused.
He shot back, saying, “From whom should we seek permission? They are not our masters. People of this country are the masters. The government is not our master, unfortunately they have started behaving like they are our masters.”