Anna Hazare ends fast at Jantar Mantar - To start work on creating political alternative

Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Gopal Rai today ended their fast after Team Anna resolved to come up with a political alternative for the country. They broke the fast at the hands of Retd Gen V K Singh in the evening at 6.30 pm along with 350 anshankaris who were sitting on fast for the past 10 days.

It was declared that the andolan would take place simultaneously on  the roads and the Parliament.

Gen Singh told the crowds that what was happening today in the name of policies was undemocratic and to prevent that there has to be a political alternative.

“In 1975 Jay Prakash Narayan said that corruption is at the base of all problems. The statement is as relevant today as it was back then. Whenever you oppose bad governance, you are alleged to be wrong. You will also face the same. You, the people, have to be vigilant to prevent that from happening,” he said.

“In Army we learn two major things, one that we respect all religions and second that there is no difference between any caste and creed. And this is what makes the Army successful. People will try to divide you on name of caste, creed, etc. You should not fall prey to them. Think of yourself as an Army man and you will always get success,” he added.

Arvind Kejriwal thanked the people on fast, the doctors, the naturopaths, the volunteers, the media and Nitin Dawar.

“We thought that a massive public movement will force the govt. to pass a strong Janlokpal, but that did not happen despite the support of millions of people. We introspected  and found that it is due to tainted ministers in the cabinet that they are not passing the Janlokpal.”

“Today the third phase of this movement has started. Now this fight is moving from Janlokpal to overall systemic change.”

“This movement is moving from the roads to the Parliament, but that does not mean that the on road movement will stop. The movement will now be on roads as well as inside the Parliament,” he said.

“I challenge the Congress that if in the next one and a half years they pass Janlokpal, laws for right to recall, right to reject and gram sabhas, then we will withdraw our decision of getting into politics.”

He told the crowd that their aim was decentralization of power. The party that is going to be launched will be entirely run by people. He said that all decisions right from selection of candidates to funding and expenditure would be put in the public domain. They would challenge other parties to do the same. Kejriwal also said that the movement needed an army of volunteers. Those who had suggestions can email it to indiaagainstcorruption.2010@gmail.com or write to A-119, Kaushambi, Ghaziabad.

He also called on people who feel suffocated in their parties like Cong and BJP to join their movement.

Anna Hazare said that whenever he has sat on a fast he has always chosen to break his fast at the hands of someone clean. This time as well he was happy to break his fast at the hands of Gen VK Singh. He also announced that he would not participate in any elections.

He said, “What are we asking for? For last one and a half years we have been fighting for a strong Lokpal. I believe that a strong Lokpal can root out corruption to great extent, at least 60-65%. But our demand was not accepted. They ditched us again and again. Now we need to decentralize power… I am not doing this for myself at the age of 75. I am doing this for the people,” he added.

“If the political parties are afraid of us then they should pass Janlokpal, decentralize power, pass right to reject and right to recall as Arvind said. We are not interested in power but we want a better India,” he said.

In his address, Manish Sisodia said during the 10 days of anshan he realised that there is no place for democracy in the current system. We are left with just 2 options. Either sit on anshan for years which will have little impact on Govt or start a political revolution. Therefore, we are left with no option."

Gopal Rai said, "when we attained our independence in 1947, there was a hope that the new Govt would end the corrupt systems that was created by the British. Unfortunately that did not happen. The only difference was that the British were replaced by Indians. The system however did not change."

Yogendra Yadav said, "the path that has been chosen is a very tough one. But it is the right path."

The total donation collected during the last 10 days was Rs. 39,52,783. The details of the same are available on our website www.indiaagainstcorruption.org.

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