Anna Hazare ends his vow of silence at Rajghat

Gandhian activist Anna Hazare ended his vow of silence early this morning at Rajghat. Mr Hazare reached Delhi last night from his native village Ralegan Siddhi. Later in the day today, he will participate in a parliamentary panel meeting on Lokpal Bill.

"Bharat Mata ki jai (Long live India)," were his first words as he ended his 19-day 'maun vrat'. He also said his fight was against the corrupt system, and not against any particular party.

"My 'maun vrat' was not against any party. After my indefinite fast, I had a lot of weakness. Mahatma Gandhi showed me the way. He said one must observe 'maun vrat'. My health has become absolutely fine after the vow of silence. I now have more inspiration to fight for Lokpal," he added.

The 74-year-old anti-corruption crusader began his 'maun vrat' on October 16 at Ralegan in Maharashtra for 'atma shanti' (peace of soul). Since then, he communicated by writing notes. His personal physician had advised him against continuing with his maun vrat.


While on his vow of silence, the Gandhian had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh warning him that he will begin another round of campaigning against corruption if the government does not pass the Lokpal Bill in the Winter Session of Parliament. "I will begin my hunger strike agitation on the last day of the Session if the Jan Lokpal Bill is not passed in the House and the team will tour various states to educate people about the issue," Mr Hazare said in his letter.

But, in some reprieve for the PM's party, the ruling Congress, Anna also said in his letter that his campaign will not target any one political party. In a recent Lok Sabha bye-election in Hisar, Anna's close aides campaigned emphatically against the Congress, drawing much criticism for singling out one party.

Yesterday, key members of Team Anna - Arvind Kejriwal, Shanti Bhushan, Prashant Bhushan and Kiran Bedi - met the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel and Law and Justice to present their views on anti-corruption measures that it believes the Lokpal Bill should include.

After the meeting, Team Anna member and eminent lawyer Prashant Bhushan said, "We had a good and positive meeting. We explained the amendments that we are seeking to make the bill aligned to Jan Lokpal bill, like the Uttarakhand Bill. There will be a questions-answer session tomorrow."

Abhishek Manu Singhvi, the Chairman of the committee, said, "The progress has been satisfactory and we now hope to go on to the next stage of deliberation."

This was Team Anna's second appearance before the committee and the first after Mr Hazare undertook a 13-day fast in August demanding that the Jan Lokpal Bill be passed in the Monsoon Session of Parliament.

Soon after the Lokpal Bill was referred to the committee, Mr Hazare and his associates had deposed before the panel saying it should ask the government to withdraw the Lokpal Bill in its present form as it would "encourage corruption".

The Jan Lokpal Bill drafted by Team Anna was referred to the committee by Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT); the Government's Lokpal Bill introduced in Lok Sabha in August was referred to the panel on August 8 this year.



-Source: NDTV

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