Anna Hazare sits on hunger strike for Lokpal

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 23

Anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare is back in action at Ramlila Maidan today beginning an indefinite hunger strike against the Narendra Modi-led government over the long-pending Jan Lokpal and neglected agrarian distress.

Hazare today accused the government of trying to stall the agitation by cancelling Delhi-bound trains carrying protestors. After paying tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat, Hazare reached Ramlila Maidan where supporters had started thronging since early hours of morning.

It is the same place where around seven years ago the veteran social activist had launched an agitation, which caught the imagination of people across the country, demanding a Jan Lokpal from the then UPA government at the Centre.

The octogenarian, who recently had been critical of the PM for not appointing Lokpal and failure to address farmers’ issues, has been pressing for constituting a Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in the states.

This time around the Gandhian also hopes to put pressure on the Modi government to implement the long-pending recommendations by Prof MS Swaminathan-led Commission and bring about electoral reforms.

Hazare had said last Sunday that he had been trying to reach out to the BJP government over the past three years to highlight the issues and written several letters in this regard, but to no avail forcing him to begin a fresh agitation. The obvious reason being the PM’s office and his cabinet would be covered by the Lokpal law, he had stated.