Activists slam Anna Bill,blame corporates,RSS

Alleging that the Sangh Parivar was mobilising people for the protests led by Anna Hazare,a group of activists also accused corporates of playing a role in the agitation.

Alleging that the Sangh Parivar was mobilising people for the protests led by Anna Hazare,a group of activists on Monday also accused corporates of playing a role in the agitation.

The activists,including Mahesh Bhatt,Shabnam Hashmi,Anand Teltumbde,Prof Ram Puniyani,Kamayani Bali Mahabal,Amir Rizwi,Waqar Kazi and state minority commission vice-chairman Abraham Mathai,also supported an alternate version of the Lokpal Bill put forth by activist Aruna Roy of the National Campaign for Peoples Right to Information NCPRI,which they claimed was decentralised and implementable as compared to Team Annas Jan Lokpal Bill.

Why has the agitation been launched at a time when8230; there was a chance that people from the corporate sector could go to jail? questioned Puniyani,adding that the draft of the Jan Lokpal Bill did not include the corporate sector in its ambit.

The corporate sector is either directly or indirectly aiding the agitation, said Puniyani,adding that those participating in the movement were the products of the new economic system and did not want the welfare of all sections of society.

The corporates are definitely behind the whole funding. They are not in the ambit of the Lokpal Bill, said Mathai.

The RSS and BJP are mobilising people on the ground, charged Hashmi,managing trustee,ANHAD,saying that since Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was close to prosecution,the Sangh was trying to build a cult figure like Anna.

The world needs to be saved8230; from these self proclaimed saviours, said Bhatt. The Jan Lokpal Bill is as monstrous as that of the government, he said,adding that Hazare was surrounded by people who are fascists to the core.

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Dalit activist and writer Teltumbde said the government was facilitating the agitation,saying the protest would not have taken place if the government had responded properly. Saying the protesters were an educated,urban,upper caste,MBA-like,neo-liberal crowd, he said creating discontent against the government will actually aid neo-liberal reforms.