NEW DELHI: Raking up a new issue, Anna Hazare today demanded that FIRs be registered against 14 "corrupt" Cabinet ministers of the UPA by August failing which a 'jail bharo' agitation will be launched even as he pushed back the deadline for a strong Lokpal law to 2014.
74-year-old Hazare's new plan was declared at a token fast at Jantar Mantar for a strong whistleblowers bill after his close aide Arvind Kejriwal named 14 Cabinet ministers against corruption charges were levelled.
"FIRs be registered against the corrupt (Union) ministers by August or there will be 'jail bharo' (fill the jail) agitation across the country. We have to be ready for this.
Date will be announced later," Hazare said ending his fast.
Kejriwal had took the names of around 25 politicians, including ministers Sharad Pawar, S M Krishna, P Chidambaram, Praful Patel, Kapil Sibal, Kamal Nath, Farooq Abdullah, Ajit Singh, Sri Prakash Jaiswal, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Vilasrao Deshmukh, MK Azhagiri and G K Vasan.
Hazare, whose last hunger strike in Mumbai in December-end last year flopped due to low turnout, also put the government on notice on Lokpal issue. "Bring Jan Lokpal or go out of power in 2014 general elections," Hazare said.
"We will show what is the power of Jan Lokpal Bill. I am a fakir (saint). I will show them how much strength a 'fakir' like me has," he said.
Team Anna's new game plan was revealed through a series of speeches by Hazare, Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi and Shanti Bhushan towards the end of the fast.
Though Hazare and his team targeted government, they appeared soft on opposition. There were mentions of cases against BJP's B S Yeddyurappa and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa by Kejriwal. Earlier in the day, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's name figured while talking about the killing of a whistleblower in his state.
Bedi then talked about "getting ready for the fight" during Delhi Assembly polls next year followed by Bhushan who said the government fears passing of a strong Lokpal Bill as they don't want to have their own ministers in jail.
In a bid to augment the movement's momentum and gain more support, Hazare also appeared to overlook reservations against Ramdev over his alleged Hindutva links and declared that his supporters will join the yoga guru's protests and vice versa.
"Their (whistleblowers') mothers, their children, their fathers, their wives are crying for justice. But this government has gone dumb and deaf. It is not listening to the cries of people.
"There will be a big struggle. Then the government will listen. The government came up with MNREGA but these people were killed for trying to improve it," Hazare said.
His return to staging protests comes after the Congress performed poorly in the recent Assembly polls.
Former Karnataka Lokayukta and Team Anna member Santosh Hegde, who had expressed some reservations with regard to the Team recently, was present along with other members like Shanti Bhushan, Kejriwal, Bedi and Manish Sisodia.
Earlier Hazare, after his usual visit to Rajghat before any such protest in Delhi, came to the capital's dharna hotspot Jantar Mantar at around 11 AM to loud cheers from tricolour-wielding anti-corruption supporters and chants of 'Vande Mataram' and 'Bharat Mata ki Jai'.
Family members of some of the whistleblowers who were killed while fighting corruption, including that of IPS officer Narendra Kumar murdered allegedly by mining mafia in Madhya Pradesh, were also present.
During the Assembly elections, Team Anna had campaigned for a strong Lokpal. Congress leaders had claimed that the tone and tenor of their campaign was anti-Congress.
This is the first hunger strike undertaken by Hazare after he abruptly called off his three-day fast for a strong Lokpal Bill in Mumbai last December owing to failing health and poor response. This is the fifth time he is sitting on a fast in the past one year, of which four of them have been in Delhi.
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