Baba Ramdev and Anna Hazare
27 July 2012. Anna Hazare said Friday that he is neither joining politics nor launching a political party but will support “honest” and “good candidates” nominated by people in the 2014 general elections. He said that several people have asked him to come up with an alternative to corrupt politicians. Anna will now join the indefinite fast to ask the government to introduce a Jan Lokpal Bill.. He asked the people to look for candidates with a clean background and those who have done something good for the society and vote them to power. “We need good people to be elected to parliament as we don’t have good leaders from the ruling or opposition parties. We saw how the ruling party and opposition joined hands for increasing their salaries and stopping Jan Lokpal bill,” he said. Admitting that there were not many people at the protest venue this time compared to last year when tens of thousands poured into Jantar Mantar and later the bigger Ramlila ground, Anna said that thousands were simultaneously protesting and fasting in 500 districts across India. Hazare has given an ultimatum that if the government does not accept the demands by Saturday night; he will go on hunger strike along with his colleagues Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Gopal Rai at Jantar Mantar. Yoga guru Ramdev Friday lent support to Team Anna‘s thinning anti-corruption campaign, but he slammed the team members for attacking President Pranab Mukherjee. He said that one should not criticize a person sitting at the highest office of constitution. Hazare had congratulated Mukherjee on becoming president and disapproved of criticizing the president, contrary to the strident criticism of Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal who accused Mukherjee as also other ministers of the United Progressive Alliance government of graft. Ramdev’s presence saw the crowds which had started to fizzle out at Jantar Mantar begin to surge again. Ramdev, addressing the crowd at Jantar Mantar, vowed support to Team Anna’s protest action. Ramdev will be starting an indefinite fast against black money on 9 August 20129 at Ramlila Maidan. After targeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other ministers over the last two days, Team Anna member and lawyer Prashant Bhushan leveled corruption allegations against union ministers Praful Patel, Farooq Abdullah and Sushil Kumar Shinde, among others. “The corruption charges against (former civil aviation minister) Praful Patel have only been rested to parliamentary committees. Nothing substantial has ever been done,” Bhushan said addressing the crowds at the fast venue. Bhushan alleged Shipping Minister G.K Vasan was involved in a land leasing scam at Kandla Port in Gujarat. Although the lease has expired in 2004, the minister and his aids continued to lease the land at cheap rates. He also alleged that union minister and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah was involved in misusing public money during his stint with the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association. Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde managed to influence the CBI in spite of his role in the Adarsh land scam, He added.
