Anna for FIRs against 14 ‘corrupt’ ministers
Social activist Anna Hazare on Sunday demanded registration of FIRs against 14 Union Cabinet ministers by August this year, threatening that he would launch a “jail bharo” movement if the FIRs were not filed by then.
Mr Hazare voiced the threat after his key aide Arvind Kejriwal alleged that “14 Union ministers were facing charges of corruption”. In a kangaroo court-style pronouncement based on media reports, Mr Kejriwal alleged 14 Cabinet ministers were “tainted”. The senior politicians who he described as “corrupt” are P. Chidambaram, Ajit Singh, Farooq Abdullah, G.K. Vasan, Kamal Nath, Kapil Sibal, Sharad Paw-ar, Sriprakash Jaiswal, Sushilkumar Shinde, Vilasrao Deshmukh, M.K. Azhagiri, Virbhadra Singh, S.M. Krishna and Praful Patel.
Endorsing Mr Kejriwal’s claims, Mr Hazare said that “had a strong Lokpal been in place, these Cabinet ministers would have been in jail”. He said the date for the agitation would be announced later.
Singnalling a full-scale confrontation with the UPA government at a day-long fast at Jantar Mantar here in solidarity with slain whistleblowers and to support an effective Whistleblowers Bill, Mr Hazare also said he had joined hands with yoga guru Baba Ramdev, about whom he had earlier expressed strong reservations.
Sunday’s well-attended Jantar Mantar fast came as a relief for Team Anna after the embarrassing failure of its Mumbai protest some months ago. It also clearly indicated the self-styled Gandhian was preparing to challenge the Manmohan Singh government again.
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