Forced to fast,says Team Anna; will hurt Cong in polls

On the way,Hazare will stop to pay his respects at the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Juhu.

A massive police bandobast,including personnel from the bomb detection and disposal squads and the Quick Response Team,have been put in place for the agitation. Crowds gathered to welcome Hazare to Mumbai were not allowed anywhere close to the guesthouse on Monday evening.

Hazare,who came in a convoy of vehicles accompanied by supporters and reporters via Pune,stopped at Navi Mumbai as he entered the Mumbai Metropolitan Region area. IAC volunteers were waiting for him on the Sion-Panvel highway near Vashi with bouquets. Hazare did not step out of his white SUV to interact with them,however.

In Ralegan Siddhi,villagers and the activist’s family worried about the health of the 74-year-old. In the presence of hundreds of men,women and children who shouted slogans hailing him and his movement,Hazare prayed at the Yadavbaba temple before leaving the village.

“I am not fond of going on hungerstrikes,” he said. “But the government’s inaction and unwillingness to curb corruption is forcing me to do so,” Hazare said. He reiterated his plan of going to Delhi after the Mumbai fast and protesting outside the home of Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

D G Pote,Hazare’s physician who accompanied him to Mumbai,said in Ralegan that barring the general weakness from viral fever,Hazare’s health had improved considerably since yesterday. “I advised him to avoid travelling by road,but he was determined,” Pote said.

In Mumbai,Hazare said he was feeling fine,and would be in a better position to communicate in the coming days.

In Delhi,Hazare’s close aide Prashant Bhushan who will,along with his father and Team Anna colleague Shanti Bhushan,“lead” the fast in the capital’s Ramlila Maidan,alleged that the attacks on Hazare’s so-called “RSS links” were the government’s ploy to incite violence and destroy the agitation’s non-violent character.

Bhushan reiterated Team Anna’s resolve to not only campaign against the Congress in the coming assembly polls but to also throw its weight behind “good,clean candidates” who support the Jan Lokpal bill,should parliament fail to pass a bill in line with Team Anna’s specifications.

“If a parliament and a government choose to ignore the will of 80 per cent people then the only way to make them see sense is to hurt them electorally. We will tell people to shun the Congress. We will also inform them about party positions on the bill and what they did or did not do for an effective bill. We want to make this an electoral issue and if the Election Commission wants to keep an eye on us they are welcome to do so. If we are convinced that a candidate is clean and belongs to a party that supported the Jan Lokpal we will also seek support for him,” Bhushan said.

He was reacting to Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi’s assertion on Saturday that the poll panel would keep a watch on the Lokpal movement in the five states which go to assembly polls over January,February and March.