Anna Hazare's team has won the right to fast on June 8 in the capital. However, it has had to shift the venue from Jantar Mantar to the vicinity of Rajghat. Arvind Kejriwal, a member of the team, said the fast would be held from 10am to 6pm which will witness "peaceful" protests by civil society groups and prayers by religious groups followed by a debate on the Lokpal Bill. The team is holding the day-long fast to protest the crackdown on Baba Ramdev's peaceful fast and the centre's bid to dilute the proposed Lokpal Bill.

This group had boycotted the meeting of the panel on Monday, after which HRD minister Kapil Sibal said the bill would be drafted with or without the civil society members by June 30.

Arvind Kejriwal said, "We never boycotted all the meetings. We only boycotted the meeting on Monday as a token of our protest to what happened to Baba Ramdev. We have also asked the government to reschedule the same meeting. We are very much a part of the joint drafting committee on Lokpal Bill."

PTI Reports

Justice Santosh Hegde, said he will not join any fast or demonstration till he was holding a public post but noted that the move to impose Section 144 and denying permission to Hazare "indicates a weakness" on the part of the government.

"The actions of the government against Baba Ramdev shows they are scared of him," he alleged, adding he was not asking anybody to defy the law.

BJP spokesperson Nirmala Seetharaman said the police decision clearly shows that the government is neither prepared to engage with the civil society nor it is clear about the strategy with which it has to negotiate on issues which are confronting it.

No justification for section 144

A day earlier, member of Team Anna and former law minister Shanti Bhushan had pointed out to the Delhi Police in a letter that the supreme court had clearly directed on more than one occasion that imposition of section 144 was meant only for "emergent situation" and that its efficacy lay in its ability to "prevent some harmful occurences", without which its "exercise would have no justification".

In fact, in the face of such pronouncements the Delhi Police had, on May 25, gave an undertaking to the Delhi high court that its regular practice of invoking section 144 in central Delhi was being discontinued with and that "the said provision of law would be invoked as and when warranted because of an emergent situation".

Bhushan had pointed out that nothing had changed to justify invoking section 144 in central Delhi and other areas, as Delhi Police did soon after forcibly evicting Baba Ramdev and his followers from the Ramlila grounds. He had  assured of peaceful assembly at Jantar Mantar to protest against the assault on Baba Ramdev.

But the Delhi Police decided to ignore the court directions and its own undertaking by denying permission for the assembly.

PTI Reports

No difference with Anna: says Ramdev

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev today dismissed suggestions of a rift with the Anna Hazare-led team and said he has asked his supporters to join the day-long fast by the social activist and his aides in New Delhi tomorrow.

"We are with them (Anna Hazare-led group). There is no difference between Anna and me," Ramdev told reporters here.

He was responding to suggestions that there was a rift between him and the Anna Hazare-led team.

"Thousands of our activists will go to Delhi to participate in the Anna movement (scheduled for tomorrow). We do not have any hope with this government. It (government) has stifled the Lokpal Bill movement," he said.

Hazare and other civil society members of the Lok Pal drafting committee will sit on a day-long fast to protest the crackdown on Ramdev's fast against corruption at Ramlila Maidan on Saturday night.

Ramdev said he will not end his fast till the government accepts his demands to curb corruption and blackmoney.

"Our fast is on from June 4. There should not be any confusion about it...it will continue till this whole country is up against or united against corruption and blackmoney. We are doing satyagraha to wake up this government. If they don't wake up then there will be protest..there will be huge protests in the whole country," he said.

Ramdev said many of his supporters are in Tihar jail in Delhi and asked the government to give their names so that he can help them.

Ramdev said: "I have come to know that some of them (supporters) are in Tihar jail. A list of all these people should be given to us so that we can do something for them.

"Police is not cooperating, infact, they are threatening our men against lodging complaint against brutality. We may take five to seven days to get the details of atrocities meted out to these innocent people," the Yoga guru said.

It is very unfortunate that police restored to lathicharge against "innocent people, children, men and women at Ramlila Grounds," he said.

"They were brutally beaten up. This has not happened even when the British ruled us," he said.

"Our activists are already fasting and are on fast in 624 districts of the country. Our fast will continue but I have asked small children, sick and very old people not to undertake it," he said.

Ramdev said the government should not "threaten him and his followers against holding peaceful protests, failing which, it would result into a mass movement against the government's unconstitutional behaviour."

Referring to police action at Ramlila grounds, he said there was a conspiracy to kill him that night.

"We are ready to go to jail if government does not accept our demands. The more the government tries to hide the truth, the stronger will we emerge to fight it," he said.

Meanwhile, family members of freedom fighter Bhagat Singh also expressed their support to Ramdev.

"We have come here to extend our support to Baba Ramdev. Englishmen have left us but black Englishmen (kale angrez) are now ruling us," said Singh's relative Abhay Bhagat.
 

Earlier Report:

Shanti Bhushan, co- chairperson of the drafting committee of the Lokpal Bill has written to the Delhi police chief saying that the protest on Wednesday at Jantar Mantar will be peaceful. The organisers have issued a public call to join the fast and expected a few thousand people to join the protest at Jantar Mantar.

"We are putting you on notice that we intend to go aheaed with the fast on the 8th which will be totally peaceful and any attempt to prevent the people from reaching Jantar Mantar will be viewed as a serious violation of the democratic rights of the people. We hope Delhi police will resist from any such attempt," said the letter.

Please read the full text of the letter in the PDF attached.

Related Story:

The civil society representatives of the joint drafting committee on Lokpal Bill want the government to come clear on certain issues before they attend the next meeting of the committee.

They have already boycotted the meeting scheduled for Monday morning.

Shanti Bhushan, co- chairperson of the committee has conveyed this in a letter written on Monday morning to Pranab Mukherjee, union finance minister and co- chairperson of the committee.

Bhushan has said that his aides will send a list of important issues, including six issues identifier by the government by Tuesday. “We would urge you to kindly make government’s views public on these issues so that an informed public debate could start on these issues immediately,” said the letter, text of which is attached with this story.

PTI reports:

Sibal strikes a strident pose

Civil society activists led by Anna Hazare today boycotted the meeting of the joint drafting committee on Lokpal bill saying government's intentions raised serious doubts about having a strong anti-corruption watchdog and protesting against the police crackdown on Ramdev.

The activists have also sought rescheduling of the next meeting of the JDC on June 10 to some other date because of some prior engagements of Hazare.

After a meeting of the activists, Prashant Bhushan, one of the non-official members wrote a letter to finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, chairman of JDC, saying the government desires to practically leave everyone out of Lokpal's ambit--prime minister, horse trading of MPs, middle and lower bureaucracy judiciary.

He said there was divergence even on the vision of Lokpal and if the government's stand is accepted, Lokpal would be left to investigate the corruption of only 300-odd officers and ministers.

"This is government's vision for Lokpal," the letter said.

Hitting back, HRD minister Kapil Sibal, who is also a member of the committee, said, "many issues they raise are very extraneous and have nothing to do with the proceedings of the committee."

He particularly referred to Hazare raising to the issue of Ramlila Maidan incident and questioned how it was linked with drafting of the bill. .

Sibal said people may have different views on the inclusion of prime minister in the ambit of the bill but the stand can change.

The minister scoffed at suggestions that government was pleading to the civil society members to join the process.

"No, we are not pleading, but saying that we do not expect such a discourse," he said.

He said if members of the civil society continue to boycott the proceedings, they cannot force them to join the process.

"We will then put our views before the cabinet. Then it is for Parliament and standing committee...there is a process," he said.

On the stand of the civil society members, Sibal said steps as these will only delay the drafting of the Lokpal Bill. "The demand for live web cast of Lokpal meeting is irrelevant," said Sibal, while responding to the letter sent by Hazare's team to Mukherjee.

"With or without them, drafting will take place in time. The bill will be tabled in the Monsoon session of Parliament," he added.

PTI Reports

Bihar bandh on Tuesday to protest crackdown on Ramdev

A bandh called in Bihar on Tuesday to protest the police crackdown on yoga guru Baba Ramdev did not impact normal life in the state and was peaceful.

Government offices across the state were open and transport was normal, official sources said.

The bandh called by the Bharat Swabhiman Trust was incident free, the sources said.

BST supporters took out protest marches in Patna, Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur and Gaya where shops and business establishments were closed.

The protesters shouted slogans against Congress president Sonia Gandhi and the prime minister Manmohan Singh and held them responsible for Saturday's police action.

State unit BST coordinator Ajit Kumar claimed that the bandh was successful.

Shree Ram Sena comes in support of Ramdev

The Jammu and Kashmir wing of Shree Ram Sena today came out in support of the bandh call given by Haridwar-based Patanjali Yog Samiti against the forcible eviction of Baba Ramdev from Ramlila ground in Delhi.

The members of the outfit will carry out a peaceful procession across Jammu city tomorrow to lend support to Ramdev's movement against corruption, JK chief of the outfit Rajiv Mahajan said.

He also demanded that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah should initiate action against corrupt people in the state.

Bandh in Jammu on Wednesday to protest Ramdev's eviction

A bandh has been called by yoga guru Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Yog Samiti in Jammu region tomorrow in protest against his forceful eviction from Ramlila ground in New Delhi and to lend support to his agitation.

"There will be a bandh and chaka jam tomorrow in protest against the New Delhi action and in support of Baba Ramdev's Satyagrah against corruption and blackmoney," Dinesh Sharma, in-charge of Patanjali Yog Samiti Jammu said here today.

He said that all the organisations, including Jammu Chamber of Commerce, Bar Association, Traders Associations, Transport Association and other political, social organisations have extended full support for tomorrow's bandh.

"We will take out a rally from the venue of Patanjali Samiti's hunger strike and parade through the market places in Jammu peacefully."

"Jammu people want to send a message to Baba that they are fully with him on his demand of corruption and blackmoney," he said.

Claiming that the agitation was not against any political party, including Congress, he said, the demand is to fight corruption and bring back blackmoney which is stashed in foreign banks.

The Samiti's hunger strike today entered it's 4th day.

"This kind of vigilance on the part of the informed citizenry will help the legislators to be more objective and fair in their functioning and will help in better laws being enacted and better policies made," he said.