Team Anna would end their 10 days Long Fast at 5 PM on Friday August 3. This is for the first time a fast has remained unattended by any Government representative. UPA Govt turned a deaf Ear towards the campaign. Read what went wrong with Anna ‘s Fast this time.
Is this an end to Anti-Corruption Movement?? Will corruption in India continue to dominate in every sphere?
It seems that Anna himself found this fast less effective in front of insensitive UPA Government, so he started looking for alternative means.
“It is another two years to go to polls in 2014. We have to go to people throughout the country in the next one-and- half years.
“Why waste time on fasts? Tomorrow at 5 pm, all fast will end,” Hazare told supporters at Jantar Mantar at the end of an address in which he enunciated the civil society’s approach to providing a political alternative to the current system.
Talking about providing an alternative to the current system, Hazare ruled out launching or joining a political party but asked people to come out with ideas on how the alternative can be provided.
“It is time for us to think of an alternative. We want a political alternative. But I will not launch or join a party. People should decide who should be given tickets and how to achieve that alternative system,” he said.
Dismissing suggestions that Team Anna may pose a threat to the prospects of BJP if it emerges as a political alternative, the main opposition maintained there have always been several parties in the political battlefield.
“There are more than 60 politcal parties and seven national parties in India. Everybody has a right to form a party and to contest the elections. Nobody has the authority to prevent anybody from entering the fray,” BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said. He pointed out that when BJP’s predecessor, Jan Sangh, was formed in 1952 there was one-party dominance of Congress.
Asked if BJP would support Team Anna if it enters politics, Hussain said “we will join forces with whoever raises his voice against corruption.” However, when asked if Team Anna’s proposed political outfit could be a part of NDA, Hussain said let the party be formed first.
Team Anna member Prashant Bhushan sought responses from the people in the next 48 hours on a “political alternativeâ€. Sources in the core committee said while Hazare is opposed to the idea of launching a party, some like Bhushan and Arvind Kejriwal have been pushing for it since February.
A tweet on the team’s official Janlokpal handle asked people to reply “yes†or “no†on whether they should “provide a political alternative to the countryâ€.
Kejriwal, whose fast entered the ninth day, however, had a word of caution when he said that it is easy to say about forming an alternative but difficult to get it done.
He cited the JP Movement and said that he was worried the alternative should not produce corrupt leaders.
Darshak Hathi, another core committee member, said the political alternative in question is unlikely to be a political party as Hazare is opposed to it. “He wants us to support good people as candidates. But if some others want a political party, let us see how things shape up,†he said.