Nationwide protests against Anna Hazare's arrest

The early morning crackdown on Anna Hazare and his team triggered nation-wide protests with people from different walks of life  demanding his immediate release

GOA
Hundreds courted arrest on Tuesday in Panaji. The activists of India Against Corruption, a NGO inspired by the Gandhian, held a public meeting at Azad Maidan before courting arrest. Hazare’s movement elicited support from renowned freedom fighters like Madhavi Desai, who recalled their ‘satyagraha’ held in Panaji to liberate Goa from the Portuguese rule. Desai, a veteran Marathi writer, said it is time for the entire India to get together and throw away corrupt people who have left the country bleeding.

SHILLONG
Teachers and students of the North Eastern Hill University on Tuesday staged a demonstration, saying arresting Anna and his team was an infringement of one’s right to freedom of expression and freedom to peaceful protest. Students, teachers and non-teaching employees of the university held a meeting on Tuesday in connection with creating general awareness about the Jan Lokpal Bill. Students displayed placards against corruption. A resolution adopted at the meeting conveyed solidarity with Team Anna in their crusade against corruption.

ANDHRA PRADESH
Hundreds led by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N Chandrababu Naidu marched in Hyderabad on Tuesday while rallies and fasts began in other parts of Andhra Pradesh in support of the activist. Naidu led a massive rally from NTR Trust Bhavan, the TDP headquarters, to Tank Bund in the heart of the city. TDP leaders, legislators, hundreds of activists and others covered a distance of 10 km on foot. The TDP leaders kept aside their party flag and instead marched under the national flag so that people from all walks of life and various groups could join the protest. The protest threw traffic out of gear in busy areas like Punjagutta, Khairatabad, Secretariat and Tank Bund. Naidu and others later staged a sit-in at Ambedkar statue on Tank Bund, which joins the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. Students and activists participated in another rally taken out by India Against Corruption, Hyderabad chapter, at Indira Park. Some activists also launched a three-day fast at Indira Park to express solidarity with Hazare.

UTTAR PRADESH
Lawyers stayed away from courts and students played truant to take part in rallies in all major cities of Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday as support for Hazare and outrage over his detention swelled. All cities witnessed sit-ins and processions of people from all age groups. Students of the Allahabad University and colleges in Kanpur took out processions, during which they burnt effigies. In Ballia, Allahabad and Bulandshahr, especially, courthouses looked deserted. Many were detained in Allahabad, Sultanpur and other parts of Uttar Pradesh as they blockaded roads.

KERALA
Activists of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) student’s wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) took to the streets across the state, boycotting classes to protest the detention of Hazare. Leading lights from all sections of the society staged a sit-in at the Martyrs Column in the heart of Thiruvananthapuram and protested Hazare’s detention. Sporadic protests broke out across the national capital, leading to the detention of more than 500 supporters, including former top cop Kiran Bedi and lawyer Shanti Bhushan.

TRIPURA
National Election Watch (NEW), Tripura chapter, a common platform on electoral reforms, on Tuesday organised a signature campaign in Agartala. NEW Tripura Chapter’s president and former state election commissioner and law secretary BB Senapati said. Provisions of exclusion of the prime minister, Chief Justice of India and judges of the higher judiciary from draft of the Lokpal Bill would not help making a strong Lokpal bill and anti-corruption law, he added. Senapati and his team, however, expressed disagreement over Hazare’s demand to bring the conduct of MPs in Parliament in the ambit of the anti-corruption watchdog and said the parliament should have the supreme authority and Lokpal should not interfere in the parliamentary /legislative proceedings.

JAMMU & KASHMIR
The Jammu and Kashmir unit of the CPI(M) on Tuesday condemned the detention of Anna Hazare and asked the Centre to consider the concerns of the civil society. State secretary of CPI(M) MY Tarigami said the prime minister should come under the ambit of the Lokpal Bill, but there should be a separate judicial commission at the state-level and central-level which should keep checks on higher judiciary, he said. Political parties and Anna supporters called the arrest “unconstitutional” and demanded his immediate release. Hazare’s supporters and several political leaders held protests and sit-in demonstrations across the city. Over 300 supporters of Hazare blocked traffic at Satwari Chowk on Jammu-Srinagar national highway and raised slogans against the UPA government. They lambasted the government for putting forth a ‘weak’ Lokpal Bill in parliament without taking the prime minister and the judges under its ambit.

ORISSA
Demonstrations and dharnas were held in several places of Orissa. People from different spheres, including social activists, artists, writers and intellectuals, hit the streets holding placards and banners and shouting slogans against the police action. In the state capital, activists of various outfits, including the India Against Corruption, staged dharna along the Mahatma Gandhi Marg extending full support to Hazare in his struggle. Dubbing the action on Hazare as “murder of democracy”, rights activist Prafulla Samantara said people were backing the movement for ensuring probity in public life. A number of youths from different walks of life also staged a hunger strike under the banner of Orissa Against Corruption expressing solidarity with the anti-corruption movement. Reports of demonstrations, dharnas and rallies in support of Hazare and his movement were also received from Berhampur, Sambalpur, Cuttack, Puri, Rourkela, Sundargarh, Bolangir, Rayagada, Keonjhar and Bhawanipatna. A motor-cycle procession was taken out in Sambalpur against Hazare’s detention.

PUNJAB
Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Tuesday strongly condemned Anna’s arrest and termed it as “murder of democracy”. People from all walks of life, including advocates and academicians, on Tuesday took to streets at several places in Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana voicing their support to civil society members in their crusade against corruption.