Anna Hazare said to the governemnt 'Pass the Lokpal Bill or Leave'

The Anna Hazare camp on Sunday took its campaign to a strident new pitch, with the Gandhian leader delivering a “Lokpal bill lao ya jao (bring Lokpal bill or go)” call and warning of “unprecedented protests” if the government did not pass Team Anna’s version of the bill by August 30.

The escalation came on a day that saw crowd support for the protests swelling dramatically, with large turnouts at India Gate and Ramlila Maidan, and activists demonstrating outside the prime minister’s residence.

Efforts to resolve the standoff also got underway, with intermediaries meeting telecom minister Kapil Sibal late on Sunday evening. Veteran Maharashtra bureaucrat U C Sarangi and longtime Hazare associate Bhayyuji Maharaj met the fasting leader for around 20 minutes earlier in the day. They were later closeted with Kapil Sibal.

Sarangi and Maharaj had taken a summary of the government’s Lokpal bill to Hazare, but the activists dismissed it, saying it did not amount to any new proposals.

After the meeting with Kapil Sibal, campaign leaders said discussions were of a general nature and no proposal was conveyed to the government. Bhayyuji Maharaj said the talks were positive and both sides were flexible.

The government was looking for ways to accommodate the activists’ demands while insisting that the parliamentary process could not be short-circuited.

But the massive public turnout in support of Anna Hazare’s campaign put paid to the hope in some quarters that the protests would peter out.

As Hazare gave the call of ‘lao ya jao’ (pass the bill or leave) to the government, Sarangi and Bhayyuji Maharaj met the Gandhian with most of his aides absent. This was Sarangi’s second meeting with Hazare in the last two days.

On the sixth day of Hazare’s fast, about 80 people were detained for protesting near the PM’s residence. The agitation was not restricted to Delhi alone, with reports that coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal’s Kanpur residence was raided by protesters. Law minister Salman Khurshid was greeted by black flag-bearing Anna supporters in his Farukkhabad constituency.

In response to the government’s overtures, Team Anna said they were willing to talk and that a negotiator should be appointed by the government. While Arvind Kejriwal said the government should tell them whom to meet and when, Swami Agnivesh added that the government should introduce the Jan Lokpal bill in Parliament to create trust.