Following the Anna Hazare’s protest in Tihar Jail, around one thousand supporters joined him in front of the jail. The roads adjacent to Tihar were blocked for vehicles during the protest, resulting in traffic jams in nearby areas. Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev arrived to the Tihar Jail on Wednesday afternoon at around 2 pm with a huge crowd of his supporters and subsequently, after a few minutes, Sri Sri Ravishankar also joined him.
Both of them were allowed to meet Anna inside the jail. Kiran Bedi and Shanti Bhushan also met Anna and all of them apparently discussed the situation and held a prayer with Mr Hazare.
Meanwhile, the supporters of Baba Ramdev and Sri Sri Ravishankar united outside the Tihar Jail. The crowd of supporters was suddenly exceeded more than 1,500 when both, Ramdev and Ravishankar, met the Gandhian leader. Anna’s close aide Manish Sishodia, social activist Medha Patekar, Anna’s aides Kirna Bedi and Shanti Bhushan addressed the supporters and informed them about the situation.
“He does not want them (police) to arrest him the moment he begins his fast at a location of his choice. We don’t have any information on when he will come out,” they said addressing the supporters.
A huge crowd of supporters was gathered on two gates of Tihar to watch Anna coming out of the jail.
Residents of the nearby areas provided free food, drinking water and toilets to Anna supporters. Some of supporters voluntarily started sweeping the roads where a lot of bottles and disposable plates were scattered. A group of men also took leave from the office to join the protest.
“I work with a private bank as an assistant manager. I was watching the protest from the time Anna was arrested, but today I couldn’t stop myself to join the protests. I am sweeping the road to keep the place of protest clean and I took a leave from my office,” said Ajay Kumar.
Some of retired government employees also joined the protest despite of the hot and humid weather.
“I was a teacher in Delhi government school 11 years ago. After the JP movement, I am watching the most interesting movement of free India. Anna is right and we need another independence from corruption,” said Dr Shiv Kumar Bhardwaj here.