The Anna Hazare camp appears to have undergone a sea change from its Jantar Mantar protest days to the Rajghat show of strength on Wednesday. The India Against Corruption, spearheading the Lokpal agitation, is no more shy of showing its anguish at the Congress in a departure from regular letters that Hazare used to send to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi from Jantar Mantar.
Buoyed by strong turnout of support, the Anna Hazare camp gave ample hints that it is preparing for a sustained nationwide agitation on the issue. So, donation box alongwith membership drive kept the volunteers of the India Against Corruption busy amid the top leadership hitting out at the government which was welcomed with loud cheers from the crowd.
At the end of day-long fast, joint Lokpal drafting committee member Arvind Kejriwal announced that the collections for the day stood at `2,60,285. Such donations are being collected now from each of the meetings of the IAC nationwide.
Further, the morale of the Hazare camp is boosted by unprecendented membership jump after the Jantar Mantar stir, with thousands of youth having joined the movement recently. “I joined the group by calling the number flashed on TV channels of the IAC and have come here all the way from Varanasi to work as volunteer. More than 55,000 people joined within days of the Jantar Mantar stir and the number is only going up,” said Kartik Singh.
More focus on the part of the IAC is now on building brand Anna, with members getting opportunity to speak from the dais stressing that Hazare is the new Gandhi and he would bring in another revolution, with speakers drawing parallel between the Brtish and the government.
The crowd cheered any attack by the members of the civicl society on the government during the “public consultation” on the Lokpal Bill. In fact, Arvind Kejriwal was shouted down by the crowd to shorten the proposed investigation period of any accused under the legilslation. In a sign of instant “public decision”, Mr Kejriwal during his consultation on the Jan Lokpal Bill went through main elements which were instantly approved by the people, with the loudest cheers coming for inclusion of the Prime Minister in the ambit of the proposed legislation.