August 18, 2011

ANNA HAZARE ARREST: PEOPLE MARCH, GOVT CRAWLS

Posted by The Himalayan Voice:
[The breathtaking reversal of the government stand came in the face of a spontaneous countrywide show of solidarity with Hazare which left little doubt that denying him a protest site was a huge miscalculation. Thousands of impassioned activists gathered on the lawns of India Gate at short notice on Wednesday evening. At Juhu beach in Mumbai thousands took out a silent candle-light procession. Similar displays of support for the Gandhian swept across the country. In fact, the blunder of arresting him appears to have increased Anna's flock by leaps and bounds.]

By Himanshi Dhawan, 
Image: The New York Times
NEW DELHI: A blundering government was virtually brought to its knees on Wednesday as waves of Anna Hazare's supporters laid siege on the city. They thronged key points of the Capital, including Tihar Jail where Anna is still lodged. When the last reports came in, the authorities were desperately trying to get him out of jail by giving in to almost all his demands. But Anna was insistent on official permission for a month-long protest at the historic Ramlila Maidan, not seven days as was being offered by the police. 

The government has agreed to Ramlila Maidan, a site it had earlier described as being "communally sensitive", it has set no curb on the number of people that can assemble there or on the use of loudspeakers. It is learned to have even offered to allow Anna to hold his protest for 21 days, but he's still not biting. Negotiations were still on around midnight with key members of Anna's team, who appear to hold all the aces in these negotiations. 

The breathtaking reversal of the government stand came in the face of a spontaneous countrywide show of solidarity with Hazare which left little doubt that denying him a protest site was a huge miscalculation. Thousands of impassioned activists gathered on the lawns of India Gate at short notice on Wednesday evening. At Juhu beach in Mumbai thousands took out a silent candle-light procession. Similar displays of support for the Gandhian swept across the country. In fact, the blunder of arresting him appears to have increased Anna's flock by leaps and bounds. 

Ordinary citizens thronged the streets-among them, doctors, teachers, professionals, retired army officers. They offered food and water to the protestors; some quietly swept and cleaned the protest venues. Cars caught in jams caused by the protests did not honk; passengers even got out and joined the protesters. 

As they faced a serious threat of backlash from civil society, the government and Congress looked completely isolated. In Parliament, the opposition rejected the efforts of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to rally the political class behind the government by arguing that civil society's opposition to the government-approved Lokpal bill posed a threat to parliamentary supremacy. 

The authorities' backpedalling which began on Tuesday evening when they organized Hazare's early release, turned into a virtual surrender on Wednesday when the government said civil society activists could hold their protest at Ramlila Maidan-a location where many historic rallies have been held, including the one where the flag of opposition to the Emergency was unfurled in February 1977. 

Moreover, Ramlila Maidan is located close to JP Park. All the reasons Delhi Police had cited to set tough conditions for the use of JP Park apply to the Maidan as well. If anything, it is located in a more congested area and in the heart of the trading hub of the walled city. In June, government had forcibly evicted Baba Ramdev from here, arguing that it was located in a "communally sensitive" area. 

Congress spokesperson had on more than one occasion alleged that Hazare's movement had been infiltrated by the "communal" RSS, but this consideration seemed nowhere in play as the government rushed to placate the Gandhian. 

Speaking in Parliament, the Prime Minister termed the arrests of Hazare and his supporers on Tuesday as "inevitable though unfortunate". He distanced his government from the police action, including Hazare's arrest, but suggested that Hazare had left the authorities with no option. He criticized Hazare saying that "the path he has chosen to impose his draft of a bill upon Parliament is totally misconceived and fraught with grave consequences for our parliamentary democracy." 

He added: "All of us in this House are agreed that a Lokpal Bill must be passed as early as possible. The question is who drafts the law and who makes the law. I am not aware of any constitutional philosophy or principle that allows anyone to question the sole prerogative of Parliament to make a law. As far as I am able to gather, Anna Hazare questions these principles and claims a right to impose his Jan Lokpal Bill on Parliament." 

However the opposition did not buy his argument about Hazare posing a threat to the city's law and order situation. Leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley rebuffed what he called an attempt to create a conflict between Parliament and anti-corruption activists.

@ The Times of India

DEAL WOULD FREE INDIAN ACTIVIST AND ALLOW PROTESTS

[The apparent breakthrough came as a standoff between Mr. Hazare and the government on Wednesday had become a national political crisis. Mr. Hazare, who was arrested on Tuesday, was refusing to leave Tihar Jail — despite the police’s having already issued an order releasing him — until the authorities agreed to let him go unconditionally.]
By 
NEW DELHI — The protest leader Anna Hazare appeared to strike a deal with the police early Thursday morning that would enable him to leave a local jail and begin staging a hunger strike against corruption later in the day, according to a close aide and reports in the Indian news media.
One of Mr. Hazare’s aides, Kiran Bedi, announced via Twitter that Mr. Hazare had accepted a police offer to limit any hunger strike and mass demonstration in New Delhi to 15 days. The protest would be staged at the city’s Ramlila grounds, and the Indian news media reported that the authorities had relented on Mr. Hazare’s demand that no limits be placed on the number of people allowed to attend.
The apparent breakthrough came as a standoff between Mr. Hazare and the government on Wednesday had become a national political crisis. Mr. Hazare, who was arrested on Tuesday, was refusing to leave Tihar Jail — despite the police’s having already issued an order releasing him — until the authorities agreed to let him go unconditionally.
The deal became public hours before daybreak in India and appeared to have been made possible after an emergency early-morning meeting between Mr. Hazare’s top aides and the city’s police commissioner.
Mr. Hazare’s refusal to leave jail had seemed to jolt his supporters and tapped into a visceral public disgust with official corruption. More than 10,000 people marched through New Delhi on Wednesday afternoon in a peaceful rally that began at the India Gate monument.
College students mingled with retirees and middle-class workers in a throng energized by the moment. People waved banners and chanted Mr. Hazare’s name. One hand-scrawled poster declared “Corruption — Virus, Anna — Antivirus.”
Fueled by obsessive coverage on India’s all-news television networks, the jailhouse protest clearly captured the imagination of the country, and appeared to have backed government leaders into a political corner.
Elsewhere in India, protests were held in major cities, as well as in villages and across many states.
Hundreds stood outside Tihar Jail, where Mr. Hazare was being held, awaiting his appearance on Wednesday. “Anna, you struggle!” they chanted. “We are with you!”
Throughout the day, Mr. Hazare’s allies negotiated with officials over the terms to end the standoff, which began on Tuesday morning when the police arrested Mr. Hazare at an apartment in New Delhi. He had been en route to a city park, where thousands of supporters were expected to join him as he staged a hunger strike as part of his campaign against corruption.
The police detained more than 2,600 of his supporters on Tuesday but later released them. Facing growing criticism for their handling of the situation, government officials later ordered Mr. Hazare’s release, though he refused to obey.
Mr. Hazare’s presence in the jail was especially embarrassing to the government because several politicians charged with corruption are being held there.
By late Wednesday evening, expectations had dimmed that Mr. Hazare would leave the jail before Thursday. His aides said they were still negotiating with officials about where and for how long he would be allowed to stage a hunger strike demonstration in New Delhi. The Indian news media reported that Mr. Hazare wanted permission to demonstrate for 30 days, while the authorities wanted to restrict it to a week or less.
Corruption is a source of growing public anger and frustration in India, and a yoke threatening to drag down the coalition government led by the National Congress Party. Mired in scandals for months, Congress Party leaders have tried to convince the public that they are cracking down on corruption, yet public skepticism remains high.
Mr. Hazare and his supporters are pushing to create an independent anticorruption agency, known as the Lokpal, with sweeping powers to investigate government officials. In April, Mr. Hazare gained national attention when he undertook a hunger strike for a Lokpal — a tactic that forced officials to invite him and his allies to negotiations over legislation to create such an agency.
A bill is pending in Parliament, but Mr. Hazare has argued that the legislation is too weak, especially because it exempts the prime minister and the judiciary from the agency’s scrutiny. As a tactic to pressure the government to amend the Lokpal bill, Mr. Hazare had planned to stage a hunger strike this week in New Delhi. India’s relentless television news channels have covered the situation around the clock for the past two days, heightening public attention around the country.
If Mr. Hazare has won widespread sympathy for his attack on corruption, his tactics have raised concerns. Some political commentators have described his hunger strikes as the equivalent of political blackmail by trying to force the government to capitulate to his demands, rather than allow elected leaders in Parliament to seek a political compromise.
“Anna Hazare may be inspired by high ideals in his campaign to set up a strong and effective Lokpal,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Wednesday during an address before Parliament. “However, the path that he has chosen to impose his draft of a bill upon Parliament is totally misconceived and fraught with grave consequences for our parliamentary democracy.”
Even as government leaders were coming under growing criticism for their handling of Mr. Hazare, Mr. Singh and others described Mr. Hazare’s initial arrest as a law-and-order issue. They said the police arrested Mr. Hazare only after he made it clear that he would defy a police decision to deny him a permit for an indefinite hunger strike.
Hari Kumar and Nikhila Gill contributed reporting.