At least 6,130 people in Karnataka have registered for the Jail Bharo Aandolan as on Sunday at 6pm; of this, 4,684 are from Bangalore.
Every hit of the refresh button added more to the list. Most districts in the state saw less than 100 each registering for the movement. But a few such as Bellary (102 volunteers), Bijapur (127), Mysore with 265, Mangalore with 363 and Gulbarga with 274—apart from Bangalore—have responded well to Anna Hazare’s call for the Jail Bharo movement, scheduled for December 30, three days after Hazare plans to begin his fast, in support of a stronger Lokpal Bill.
According to Prithvi Reddy, the India Against Corruption (IAC) coordinator in Bangalore, while the numbers do reflect the mood in the city, it is only a small percentage of the actual number of people who would take part in the movement on December 30.
“After Delhi and Mumbai, Bangalore is perhaps the only other city where the movement has garnered such support and is at the forefront of the fight. The numbers online are heartening and while this is a wonderful indication of the mood of the people, it remains only a small percentage of those who will be there,” he said.
“The numbers on the Internet are only those people who use the Internet, which is a small percentage of the population.”
IAC expects at least more than 10,000 farmers from all over Karnataka to participate in the movement, but these are not necessarily the people who would register on the Internet, Reddy said.
While the numbers continue to increase, the organisers are not sure how exactly they would get themselves arrested. “While we are making sure that we do not commit any criminal offence, we are also trying to figure out how we would get ourselves arrested. It is likely that the police would simply take us away from the venue and drop us a few kilometres away,” Reddy said.
The organisers are already in talks with groups that could represent them legally.
“We are looking at the Alternative Law Forum for advice on what is bailable and what is not; Harish Narsappa from Daksh; two lawyers among the volunteers; and other legal firms who would consider representing us and taking care of the legal situations that may arise out of the arrest,” he said.
Public Letter to PM and MPs
In a public letter addressed to the prime minister and the members of Parliament, IAC has put forth some points that the Lokpal Bill cannot eliminate. According to Ashwin Mahesh, another prominent face in the anti-corruption movement, the letter was drafted after former Karnataka Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde’s meeting with the representatives of the law ministry, who tried to convince him that the Lokpal Bill introduced in Parliament was a good one.
According to Reddy, “We have been demanding a strong Lokpal Bill and the government simply goes back and forth when we put pressure. We have 29 anti-corruption laws in the country and still corruption is rampant. If the Lokpal Bill introduced by Parliament is passed, it will simply be the 30th anti-corruption law that will only burden the exchequer some more,” he said.
The four demands include suo moto powers to the Lokpal and Lokayuktas in the states to initiate their own investigations; that Lokpal and the Lokayukta be given powers to carry their own
investigations, merging them with the CBI being one option; giving the Lokayukta its own anti-corruption wings; that the administrative and financial control over CBI be with Lokpal and the appointment of CBI director be made independent of any political control; that the selection of Lokpal be through a selection panel consisting of prime minister, leader of opposition, two judges nominated by
the collegium of Supreme Court judges, CAG, CVC and CEC; that the Lokpal/Lokayuktas’ jurisdiction should include class C and D officers directly.
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