Anna Hazare utters the F-word, again

Veteran Gandhian Anna Hazare has threatened to embark on a hunger strike from December 21 (the last day of the winter session of Parliament) if the Centre fails to pass a strong Jan Lokpal legislation. Hazare held out this warning in a signed letter to prime minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday.

Hazare also announced that he and his team would tour the five states going to polls in 2012 and would ask people to vote for “honest and deserving candidates”.

In this latest letter, Hazare has referred to the PM's letter of August 27 to him. In that letter, the PM had assured Hazare that the government would introduce the Lokpal bill in the winter session.

The PM also promised to include the three cardinal points of citizen charter, including the lower bureaucracy in the ambit of the Lokpal, in the government's bill. Based on that assurance Hazare had withdrawn his 12-day fast in August.

Frowning at recent efforts by the Congress and the government to discredit Team Anna members, Hazare asked the PM to put a stop to such personal attacks and appealed to the government to pass the Jan Lokpal Bill during the winter session of Parliament.