Ralegan Siddhi, Maharashtra:
If the Congress guns are out in full force, 74-year-old Anna Hazare is not backing off either. He has sent along the draft of an Uttarakhand anti-corruption law that he much admires to Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan suggesting he take a few tips from it.
Anna said he wanted a strong anti-corruption law in his home state and so had, "sent the Uttarakhand draft to the Chief Minister. He should learn the principles of the Lokayukta Bill drafted by Uttarakhand Chief Minister. He should read it and bring it his state too. Maharashtra should become an ideal for other states to follow. But they are not doing that. He should learn from the Uttarakhand draft how to remove corruption. It's such a wonderful Bill."
This latest statement is unlikely to endear Mr Hazare to the Congress, which is already fighting the Anna effect at all levels. Uttarakhand is ruled by the BJP and is headed for elections. Anna Hazare's vocal thumbs up to Uttarakhand CM BC Khanduri, is expected to give a political fillip to the BJP.
No less than the Congress president Sonia Gandhi kicked off the party's campaign in Chamoli yesterday; she was scheduled to be there for her first political rally after her surgery in the US in August this year, but was unwell and her speech was read out instead.
The speech was designed to mitigate the Anna effect in Uttarakhand; it took on the BJP directly on the issue of corruption, and Anna Hazare too, when she said, "There is a lot of talk about corruption these days. No doubt corruption is prevalent in society in some form of the other. An atmosphere needs to be created against it. Corruption will not go by merely making speeches, by pointing a finger at others. Everyone needs to look within...You cannot eradicate corruption like this, that one thinks corruption by us is a holy affair while that by others amounts to corruption. This is what is happening these days."
Mrs Gandhi wondered why all the hue and cry over the Lokpal Bill. Underscoring that the historic Right to Information (RTI) Act which has helped unearth numerous cases of graft, was championed by her, she said, "All know that the Prime Minister and our party has said again and again that we are in favour of an effective and strong Lokpal Bill. The bill will be presented in Parliament and we will implement it."
Anna Hazare's riposte in Ralegan Siddhi, the small Maharashtra village that his celebrity has put on the global map, seemed to address both the state CM, who too had gently criticised the activist for singling out the Congress for attack when his team campaigned during the recent Hisar bye-election, and his party's top leadership.
Anna said again that if Maharashtra did not introduce a strong Lokayukta Act quickly, the government should be ready to face an agitation. "I've been talking about the Lokayukta Bill for years, but they say the Centre will do it, while the Centre says they will do it. They are pointing fingers at each other and as a result, the public is getting frustrated. I have decided that we will fight for Lokpal and Lokayukta till the end of our lives and if the Bill is not brought in the Parliament in the winter session, our movement will continue."
Mr Chavan's response to that, "I have made a public statement already that our state has a Lokayukta law, but it is not strong, admitted. So, I have made a request to the National government that when they are enacting the Lokpal bill for the Central government, they should either embed the states Lokayukta law so that all states are covered by that anti-corruption law, enacted in the Central government which is technically feasible. Alternatively, the Central government should frame model Lokayukta legislation that all states will follow. We are prepared to strengthen our existing Lokayukta law, either through the enactment of the Lokpal bill in Delhi or through a modern law. But a lot more needs to be done than Lokayukta and Lokpal and we are determined to have a great architecture for fight against corruption."
Anna and his team have warned that they will campaign in states like Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, which are headed for elections, if a stringent Lokpal Bill is not passed in the Winter Session of Parliament. The Bill provides for an ombudsman agency which will be empowered to tackle cases of graft among government servants.