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TIMES CITY | AUGUST KRANTI4 THE TIMES OF INDIA, BANGALORETUESDAY, AUGUST 23, 2011

SECOND COMING: The country calls again

JAI HO | It’s A Committed Struggle In Bangalore As Motley Groups Keep Up The Momentum On A Workday

Pics: Md Asad, Chethan Shivakumar SSrruutthhyy SSuussaann UUllllaass || TNN

In 1942, they were in Bangalore Cen-tral Jail to participate in the free-dom struggle. In 2011, they are back

again in its new form called FreedomPark, forwhat theyconcur is thesecond free-dom strug-gle. At least

10 freedom fighters were at FreedomPark to mark their support for acleaner India. In their late 80s andearly 90s, they were as energetic asany youngster in the crowd, sitting

under the hot sun and crying out‘Vande Mataram’.

TOI caught up with them andsensed the passion in these fighters.For D N Sampath, drawing a paral-lel with the freedom struggle waseasy. “I was kept in three jails andone was Bangalore Central Jail. Iwas 16 then, studying in Class 10.Now, it has transformed into a park.There is a lot of nostalgia. We suf-fered a lot then, and are ready to domore for our country,” he said.

And here he met up with his ‘jail-mate’ in Mysore subjail, K Sub-bukrishna from Mandya, who hadalso participated in the Mysore Cha-

lo and Quit India movements.Age was no deterrent for them as

they imbibed the euphoria. “Ye sabdekh ke mere ko josh aa raha hai.That’s why I have travelled hundredsof kilometres to reach here. Therewere times when I could not sleepon seeing what’s happening to ourcountry. All the leaders have becomecorrupt,” said Amresh Patil Kalkod,85, from Raichur.

“We might not be able to shoutlike the youth. But we can be an in-spiration to all of them. If we coulddo it then, we can do it now. What-ever I can do for this movement, Iwill,” said M V Krishnamachari, 87.

“What do you want us to do? Doyou want us to die? We are ready forit,” said a charged Amresh.

“What have they done to the coun-try? It’s a sad state of affairs. We hada dream when we fought for her In-dependence. We hoped for a countrywith Gandhiji’s ideals. But all ourelected representatives have takenit for granted,” fumed Sampath.

N R Mathad, general secretaryof the All India Freedom Fighters’Samiti (R), says what he sees now ismore exciting. “The youth arecharged up. There’s a lot moreawareness among them. People arecoming out in masses,” he said.

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

He is the sober voice of Team Anna. FormerLokayukta Justice Santosh N Hegde (in pic),

who was in New Delhi to lend support to activistAnna Hazare’s andolan, told TOI on Monday

that ‘Lao Ya Jao’ was a heat of the moment statement.

Is Hazare’s slogan ‘Lao Ya Jao’ a hint by Team Anna to over-throw UPA-2?The statement was not meant to overthrow a democrati-cally-elected government. It was a statement of anger byHazare because of the treatment meted out to him by thegovernment. It was not intentional but the consequenceof frustration building up, and I will not be party to anymove to overthrow a democratically-elected government.Such a remark happens when the government goes onpretending to play games. Our Jan Lokpal bill was draft-ed in December and we wanted to discuss it with the gov-ernment, which was going ahead with its legislation of2010. From February toApril 5 (when Anna wenton a fast) and later an-nounced the secondprotest from August 16,the government did notact. So who created thissituation?

Doesn’t the Jan Lokpal billhave features of an all-powerful parallel body ofsupreme policing?I will not be party to thecreation of an institutionwhich is parallel eitherto the Constitution or Parliament. Every order of the Lok-pal will be subject to scrutiny by the Supreme Court.

With corruption rampant, will a Lokpal be able to handle thesituation? There will be 11 Lokpals. We have the Prevention of Cor-ruption Act, but how many come forward to file cases?

By putting a gun to Parliament’s head that the bill bepassed by August 30, isn’t Team Anna stalling dialogue?Who started the dialogue? They are the ones who havepushed us to this situation and we are criticized now asholding a gun to Parliament.

What is Team Anna’s definition of Parliament’s supremacy?In what way is Parliament supreme? There are thousandsof laws passed by Parliament and some of them have beenquestioned in court. Article 105(2) of the Constitutionsays no Member of Parliament shall be liable to any pro-ceedings in any court in respect of anything said, or anyvote given by him in Parliament or any committee. How-ever, if a public figure is indulging in graft and the Lok-pal learns of it, action can be taken. How does it then be-come interference of the House?

What about corruption in the private sector? The jurisdiction of Prevention of Corruption Act is onlypublic servants. In a private sector, if two persons are giv-ing and taking a bribe, nothing can be done unless it’s be-tween a government agency and private party, where thelatter becomes an abettor. The Jan Lokpal Bill covers allNGOs which take aid from the government.

Back to fight another battle Hum Bhi Hain Josh Mein, FreedomFighters Remember Their Heyday Team Anna was

pushed to the wallHegde Clarifies ‘Lao Ya Jao’ Stance

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It’s a dangeroustrend: Moily

SSttaannlleeyy GG PPiinnttoo || TNN

U nion corporate affairs minis-ter M Veerappa Moily on Mon-day attacked Anna’s team,

questioning their motives and keen-ness on having a Lokpal. “I don’tknow whether they are really keenon Lokpal. Do they have some otherinvisible agenda? They have to makeit clear,” Moily said.

Talking to TOI at the airport herebefore leaving for New Delhi, Moilysaid the call to gherao MPs and min-isters was undermining the Consti-tution. “Does it mean they should

not go to Par-liament andpass a bill andd i s c h a r g etheir duties asm e m b e r s, ’ ’Moily ques-tioned.

“The callthey have giv-en amounts toanarchy. Thedictating of

terms by one or two persons is a dan-gerous trend in Indian democracy,”he said.

Moily said there were six prin-ciples in the draft on which they hadreservations, as it involved consti-tutional amendment in case of someprinciples and changing the basicstructure of the Constitution in oth-ers. “It was referred to a standingcommittee for this reason. Then they(Team Anna) started changing theirmilestones and goal posts. So I don’tknow whether they are really in-terested in Lokpal. If they were, theBill would have been passed in thelast session itself,” he claimed.

Veerappa Moily

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Last Monday, when they kicked offthe fast at Freedom Park, thecrowd numbered around 3,000. Aweek later, the number and spir-it has multiplied manifold.

Though the turnout was sober on thefirst day of the week, compared to the pasttwo days, Bangalore is still serious aboutgetting the Jan Lokpal Bill through. WhileGen Y determined the mood of the day,there were also people from other walksof life. From ex-Army officials to busi-

nessmen and retired bureaucrats, all couldbe spotted at the venue.

P V Shenoi, retired IAS official, re-marked at the crowd: “Officials in Delhishould be humbled at what they see here.”

Wearing a T-shirt that read ‘Mera netachor hai’, holding placards reading ‘Shallwe bribe the government to pass the Lok-pal Bill?’ and singing ‘Twinkle twinkle, lit-tle star, Anna Hazare is a superstar’, thecrowd kept the spirits high.

A WEEK AND GOING STRONG

Techies wind up early on Monday, head to Park PPrraasshhaanntthh GG NN || TNN

There is a need for a strong Lokpal bill,but there should be a compromise be-tween the government and civil so-

ciety, techies at Freedom Park told TOI, af-ter a hectic Monday office schedule.

The techies, who had come from Ciscoand Wipro, said they had finished a goodpart of their work in the morning and wereable to make it at noon. “While some mayhave taken leave, we thought it fit to putin the requisite hours in the morning andparticipate in the protest at noon andevening,” Amit Barman of Wipro said.

Barman felt things were heading to-wards a serious showdown between civil

society and the state. “There is definitelya need for a strong Lokpal bill. But thereshould be some give and take between thegovernment and civil society. I am herebecause I am very angry about corrup-tion, but I realize we need to work to-gether.”

Rajat Singh, also from Wipro, said hewas glad the movement had nothing to dowith politics. “The moment it is politi-cised, people will withdraw. This is thefirst time things may actually change inIndia. We are close to getting some result.”

Ranjan Chakravarti from Cisco felt ne-gotiations were important. “Both partiescannot hold on to their positions. Even ifit takes time, get to a common platform

and ensure the bill in the final form isstringent.”

Thilagam B said he was witnessing amass movement for the first time in hislife. “We have heard about Gandhi but wedid not see him. We have known JP. Butnow we are actually getting to see what amass, liberal democratic movementmeans. We are close to some sort of a so-lution to corruption. We should not missthis chance.”

They also know that they cannot taketoo many such breaks. “The bosses willallow us for an hour at most. But if we dothat everyday, naturally no boss would likeit. When our absence becomes noticeable,it becomes an issue,” Wiproites told TOI.

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

More than 500 college stu-dents were part of Mon-day’s protest at Freedom

Park. And most of them hadbunked classes.

Monday, which was KrishnaJanmashtami wasn’t a declaredholiday, yet students from manycolleges came here as they felt theneed to do their bit.

Divya Varshini from Don BoscoInstitute of Technology said:“Around 100 of us have come today.Our teachers and head of the de-partment are not preventing usfrom coming here. In fact, more stu-dents from our institute will seekpermission and come on Tuesday.”

Why are they here? “We wantto spread awareness about cor-ruption. We may not have paidbribes, but our parents have. Andwe read in newspapers every daythe extent of corruption andbribes sought in government in-stitutions. We don’t want to pay infuture and we don’t want peoplecoming after us to pay.”

What are their parents tellingthem? Nisarga R said: “Our par-ents are wholeheartedly encour-aging us to come here. Their sup-port and our coming here and join-ing all others has given us tremen-dous confidence.”

Bhavya B said their parentshad suffered enough in the pastand it was time to change things.“They have worked hard to get uswhere we are. We want to nowchange things for them. All ofthem were forced to pay bribes intheir time to survive. No wonderthey’re telling us to join the move-

ment. They’re fed up with thesystem.”

Divya and Bhavya alsopoint out that teachers werealso not hindering the students.“They understand the socialchange that is happening. Theyare not preventing us fromcoming to Freedom Park solong as we don’t make bunkingclasses a permanent thing. Be-cause they are liberal, you cansee students from many col-leges here. As long as we aredisciplined and balance class-es with the protest, collegeteachers are fine.”

All of them point to one oth-er factor that has drawn themto the park: “Anna Hazare hasinspired us. We have never seenanything like this before. Whohas the courage to take upprotest on such a large scale?”

They bunk for a cause

MMOORREE RREEPPOORRTTSS OONN PPAAGGEESS 66 && 1111

WE PAID A BRIBEI was forced to pay a bribe at the

sub-registrar’s office for propertyregistration and also to a passportofficial.Ranjan Chakravarti | CISCO

I got a driving licence without evenattending the test. I also paid a bribe fora gas connection. I have not yet gone infor a ration card because I refused topay a bribe. Arun Wuppuluri | MOTOROLA

SURVIVING ON WILL POWER

Aweek without food and water hasdone little to bring down the spirits

of the people on fast. Of around 40people who started the fast lastMonday, 17 are still going on. Thoughtheir blood pressure and sugar levelsare falling, they have still managed tofast, surviving on sheer will power.Many of them are now facing gastricdisturbances as they are going withoutfood. In all, there are 56 persons on fastwith 19 enthusiasts joining on Monday.Two persons broke their fast onMonday, following doctors’ advice.

GROWING NUMBERSSince Day1: 17

Day2: 6

Day3: 6

Day4: 1

Day5: 2

Day6: 5

Day7: 19

TOTAL 56

ON THEIR BEST WHEELSThe Belgaum Roller SkatingAcademy has organized a round-the-clock non-stop skating relayin support of Anna, and this willgo on till the Gandhian ends hisfast. Over 250 skaters belongingto different age groups and fromvarious skating institutions acrossthe district have enrolled theirnames, including Vipul Kakare, 4,the youngest participant. The wheels will roll round the

clock at Rotary CorporationSports Academy’s skating rink atGoaves here. Each skater willskate for an hour or two, tricolourin hand. Senior skaters will be thenight watchmen. ShakuntalaParanjape, president of theAssociation of PhysicallyHandicapped and Swimmers ClubBelgaum president Lata Kitturinaugurated the relay. A numberof sports academies aresupporting the initiative.

KAL AAJ AUR KAL | SOBER SENIORS, BOISTEROUS YOUTHS, WONDERING KIDS STAND UNITED

MP CUTS CALL, PUBLICSENDS SMS

India Against Corruption has anew idea to make MPs fight for

the Jan Lokpal Bill. Let the publicpressure them. IAC volunteers onMonday called up a BangaloreCentral MP P C Mohan, and putthe phone on loudspeaker near themike. When the MP picked up thecall, the volunteer said: “Sir, I amcalling from Freedom Park. Thereare around 3,000 people here. Thephone is on loudspeaker. Theywant to speak to you.”The MP disconnected the callimmediately and the crowd booedin unison.IAC read out the phone number ofthe MP to the public and urgedthem to make calls and sendmessages to the numbercontinuously, asking him tosupport their cause. IAC membersmet and handed copies of areferendum and letter to supportthe Jan Lokpal bill late Mondayevening to MPs Ananth Kumar, PCMohan, H D Kumaraswamy, S MKrishna and Veerappa Moily.

WHOLESALE MERCHANTSSHUT DOWN TODAY

T he Bangalore WholesaleFoodgrains and Pulses

Merchants Association willsupport Anna Hazare’s campaignagainst corruption. It has issued acircular to all its members to closetheir shops and establishments onTuesday from 10am to 11pm tosupport the movement. Allmembers have been asked toassemble at MGB Complex at10.30am to protest againstcorruption and demand the JanLokpal bill.

LIFE IS NO PICNIC: Students bunk college to take up a serious issue

SHUTDOWN: Shops in Jayanagar closed as a mark of protest

Some MPs have switched off theirmobiles. It’s ok. When they switch itback on, the messages will flood in.

Some politicians have changed their num-bers. We have tracked the new numbersand given them to the public.Ashwin Mahesh | ABIDE MEMBER

It’s inspiring to see so many college stu-dents here. Usually, they tend to keep awayfrom anything related to politics. thismeans they are also feeling the pinch. Asmitha Gokhale | ACTIVIST

My daughter came during the weekend. To-day, she had to go to work, so I thought Ishould come instead. Sasikala S | HOMEMAKER

I am a businessman and I have always feltthe pinch. Every time one of my vehicleshas to pass the toll gate, we pay a mini-mum of Rs 10. I pay a bribe at every step inmy business.Prakash Shetty | BUSINESSMAN

DISCUSS BILL LIVE ON TV Outside Tihar Jail, I saw unprecedented support for this non-violentmovement. On Tuesday, we will move a motion to withdraw the Lokpal bill

and introduce the Jan Lokpal bill. We will also request that Parliament session beextended from August 30 to September 30 to discuss it for another month. Wewill also suggest that we want no standing committees for it, as theirdiscussions are secretive. We want it to be discussed in Parliament so the publiccan watch it live on TV and get to know which MPs and parties aresupporting it Rajeev Chandrashekhar | MP

SHORT TAKES BILL INSPIRES A VARIETY OF PROTESTS

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