Mumbai\New Delhi:
He could not pull the numbers he had in his August protest in Delhi, but Anna Hazare's speech did not seem to hold any misgivings as he thanked the people for giving him energy and warned the government that if a strong and effective Lokpal Bill was not made law, he would campaign against it in five election-bound states.
The 74-year-old Gandhian has had a viral infection and fever for the past four days; his temperature touched 102 degrees F and his blood pressure went up this evening, hours after he rejected suggestions from members of his team to abandon his fast.
An impervious Anna, who looked decidedly unwell as doctors checked him on stage in the afternoon but said that he could go ahead with the fast, declared that he would give his life for the nation, but fight till the end for a strong anti-corruption law.
All or nothing was Anna's stand as he warned that the people of this country would teach the government a lesson since it was betraying the country. "We will tell the people that the country is being looted not by thieves but by its caretakers," he said.
This after the tens of thousands of people that Team Anna had expected to gather at the MMRDA Grounds in Mumbai to hear that speech just did not turn up - only a few thousand sat and waved tricolours. And, for the first time, Anna Hazare faced black flags and slogans against him as he made his way to the MMRDA Grounds via Juhu in the morning.
(Read: Black flags waved as Anna drives past)Mumbai Police sources said that the crowd was not more than 7,000 but Team Anna pegged the number of people who turned up to show solidarity with the 74-year-old Gandhian at about 10,000. By afternoon, it had announced feeder bus services from the Bandra and Kurla stations to the protest venue. And Kiran Bedi said a lot more people, than had gathered at the ground, had lined up to greet Anna along the way to MMRDA. Addressing the gathering, Medha Patkar said that Delhi had showed its strength in August and that it was now the turn of Mumbaikars to come out and join the protest.
At Delhi's Ramlila Maidan, only a few hundred people showed up, a marked contrast to the packed ground that Anna's 12-day hunger strike in August had witnessed. The Bhushans - Shanti and Prashant - valiantly held fort making speeches. Team Anna member Prashant Bhushan blamed the cold and the fact that Anna was protesting in Mumbai. Tomorrow, Kiran Bedi is expected to be back in the Capital to try and give the Delhi protest fresh impetus.
As the Lokpal debate in the Lok Sabha stretched into late evening, with Opposition parties demanding many amendments, Prashant Bhushan expressed doubt that the Lokpal Bill would be passed in Parliament in this session. That, he said, could bring changes in Team Anna's plan to head to Delhi after the three-day Mumbai protest on December 30 to launch a
jail bharo agitation. The activists, he said, could then rethink on the
jail bharo campaign.
"If the government extends the session or displays its commitment to bringing an effective law on Lokpal, it could prompt a rethink on the proposed
jail bharo campaign", Mr Bhushan said.
Declaring that the people who were joining politics were criminals, Anna reiterated his demand for the Right to Reject candidates in an election. "We will have to fight for these laws," he said. After Anna had made his speech for the day, the crowd tracked the debate in Lok Sabha on the public address system and on two giant screens which had been put up at the venue.