Bollywood,artists back Anna,join anti-corruption brigade

“I have three children. I don’t want them to brought up in a corrupt country. I appeal to all Indian mothers to join us,” Khan said addressing the gathering.

She was seconded by Kher who said,”The government should stop ignoring the voices of the nation and take action now.”

Vishal lamented that the bill did not get through despite being introduced in the Parliament eight times.

“It has to be done now. I appeal to the youth of the country to join this agitation,” he said.

The veteran social activist’s fast-unto-death against corruption has found many supportive voices in Bollywood,including superstars Aamir Khan and Hrithik Roshan.

Even megastar Amitabh Bachchan said he will always back issues that “benefit the nation” and also called upon the media to commit themselves to the cause.

“I shall always be supportive of any issue which benefits the nation. I do not have to preach and shout out my allegiance towards my country from the roof top every day.

My loyalty is not up for questioning and is not most certainly in a realm where it can be doubted,” Bachchan wrote on his blog.

Replying to a question posted on his blog,Bachchan,who seemed to be hurt by the comments further said,”It is painful to know that without having complete knowledge of the matter from my end,she could assume factors which are not existent. To state that I am busy and interested in earning my money only and not concerned with matters of social interest,is completely unacceptable and unfair.”

“How many electronic (channels) have committed themselves to the cause,” he asked.

“Merely doing hourly reportages of it for their commercial existence and putting questions to be answered by others is a neat duck from putting their own foot into it. It would impress me greatly if a ‘stringer’ sent on a mission to report the news were to drop the microphone,desist from reporting and join in with the fast – something that they keep asking us to do,” the 68-year-old actor said.

“Whatever work or programmes benefit the nation…are in the best of our country’s interest. I appreciate and support it. Neither do we go around claiming credit for it nor do we know how to do it,” he concluded.

Prominent personalities including writers and filmmakers also expressed their support to social activist Anna Hazare’s fast-unto-death for enactment of a Lokpal Bill to weed out corruption from public life.

“It is wonderful the way the civil society is responding to the cause. This is the way democracy should function. We can hear the voice of the people in the candlelight marches and all the spontaneous peaceful demonstrations,” celebrated filmmaker Aparna Sen told PTI.

Sen,who had earlier hit the streets in protest against Nandigram firing two years back,expressed her solidarity with the Gandhian social worker whose agitation for bringing transparency in political life entered the fourth day.

“I fully support Anna Hazare…A peaceful revolution seems to have started and there is hope yet for India,” Sen said.

Expressing his willingness to be present at the venue of Hazare’s fast,Sahitya Akademy president Sunil Gangopadhyay said,”If I go to Delhi and the impasse continues,I shall certainly turn up at the place and offer my open support.”

Gangopadhyay said he was ready to pledge support to any movement in support of Hazare’s cause in Kolkata.

“The system in our country is such that public money is swindled unabashedly and the common man just watches helplessley,” he said.

“I can’t take the initiative at this age,but I am willing to lend my support and be present physically if there is any protest here in support of the 72-year-old social worker,” the eminent Bengali writer said.

Expressing outrage over mounting corruption in the present society,internationally-known film director Goutam Ghosh said,”The common man can see how certain people are sitting on the mountain of corruption and hence losing all respect in the political class.

“Let such movement by a respected figure jolt the establishment and break the stupor. I myself feel numbed to hear about so much corruption in different ways and forms and feel enraged,” Ghose said.

Famed filmmaker Buddhadeb Dasgupta endorsed the decision to ask political figures like Uma Bharati to leave the venue of Hazare’s fast,saying,”The corrupt political class has lost all accountability and thrown the country into an abyss of corruption.”

He said the movement should be supported in every forum including the social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter on the net.

Echoing Aparna Sen,cerebral film director and theatre personality Suman Mukhopadhyay said,”The country has entered into a phase of people’s movement to cleanse the system and this augurs well for any real democracy. All these non-violent protests can ultimately force the establishment to sit up and take note.”

Asked on the absence of public support for Hazare’s cause in the streets of Kolkata,Mukhopadhyay argued that it had something to do with the civil society’s preoccupation with Assembly election

Bengali film star Rituparna Sengupta said it was not just about turning up to support the fast,but also about changing the psyche of the country and the political leadership.