Parallel drawn between Anna and Taliban's way of punishment

Ralegan Siddhi, Nov 23: Anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare's comments that drunkards should be whipped and shamed in public has come under severe criticism from political parties and Congress called his way of punishment "Taliban-type".

Anna's way of punishing drunkards came to light when he told how people in his village gave up drinking after he punished them by whipping them hard.

He said that if anyone created trouble after drinking, they were warned thrice before actually being punished by taking the person to the village temple and then tying him to the electric pole and whipping him.

"our man (belonging to our village), the person will also be made to understand that it is not good to drink," he said

"But even after warning him thrice if he again drinks then we will take him to temple and he has to swear by God that he won't drink in future.

And even after all this he drinks then we will tie him up to the electric pole in front of the temple and then beat him up so that he gets scared," he said.

However, Hazare's way of punishing did not go well with many. Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari drew a parallel between Anna's way of punishment and Taliban.

"I think the Taliban used to say the same thing. By that analogy, you will possibly have to flog half of Kerala, three-fourth of Andhra Pradesh and about four-fifth of Punjab. Therefore that's quite a tall order," he said.

"It is not something which you can implement, not because you can't but these (steps) are not the ways today," said Nirmala Sitharaman, BJP spokesperson.

Many bloggers also felt that Anna should remain focused on his motto to eradicate corruption from the nation than trying to go to the extremes.

Meanwhile, the government assured Anna Hazare that a "strong" Lokpal bill will be brought in the ongoing winter session of Parliament. The assurance was conveyed in a letter from the PMO written by V Narayanasamy.

OneIndia News