Anna Hazare threatens to go on fast from Mar 23 if Lokpal bill not passed

Belagavi (Karnataka), Jan 5: Social activist Anna Hazare said he would undertake a fast from March 23 in Delhi if his demand for passing "proper" bills for Lokpal, Lokayukta and electoral reforms were not met.

Hazare said this time it will be "aar-ya-paar" (final) till he gets the results he wished. Speaking to reporters here, he said he had hopes on Prime Minister Narendra Modi who he thought would bring changes in the political system and usher in a corruption free state but they were belied.

The Modi government has further diluted the Lokayukta and Lokpal bills, he alleged. It is "very unfortunate" that a provision making wife and children party to the property amassed illegally by an officer was removed, he said. He said former prime minister Manmohan Singh also "weakened" the Lokpal bill.

The bill presented in Parliament then was different than what was shown to him, he alleged. To a query, Hazare said it was a mistake of his life that he allowed persons like Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi to get associated with him.

Taking a lesson from the past this time, he has collected a bond on one hundred rupees stamp paper that people now associating with him in the crusade against corruption will not join any political party. In case they violated it, he would file cases against such persons, he said.

PTI