Hazare returned to the village in the wee hours of Thursday after his 12-day fast in New Delhi for a strong Jan Lokpal Bill.
Hundreds of villagers from Anna Hazare’s village, Ralegan Siddhi in Ahmednagar district, were disappointed on Thursday when they could not get a glimpse of their hero, who remained confined to his room for rest and recuperation.
Hazare returned to the village in the wee hours of Thursday after his 12-day fast in New Delhi for a strong Jan Lokpal Bill.
Speaking to DNA, his personal secretary, Suresh Pathare, said it was extreme fatigue that confined the 74-year-old Gandhian to his room. “Although his vital signs are stable, the 12 days of fasting have taken their toll on Anna and left him very weak. He has spells of giddiness and so he has decided to rest in his room,” Pathare said.
Hazare took a night flight to Ralegan Siddhi on Wednesday after he was discharged from Medicity Hospital in Gurgaon, after four days, as he wanted to be present in his village on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi.
After his return at 1.30am on Thursday, the village women welcomed him with the traditional aarti. After paying respects at the Yadavbaba temple, Hazare confined himself in the guest house of the Padmavati temple in the northern part of the village.
Visitors were disappointed that they did not get a glimpse of Hazare even as the Ahmednagar police maintained a strong presence around the temple.
The villagers were also disappointed as the pran-prathistha of the village Ganesh, on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi, which was to be done by Hazare, had to be done by Mahendra Gaikwad, a Dalit member of the village.
Dr Anju Sanghavi, a Pune resident who had travelled to Ralegan Siddhi to have a glimpse of Hazare, was among those who were disappointment.
“We wanted our children to see Anna, but I guess our luck ran out,” she said.
The Ahmednagar police had a hard time controlling the crowd of more than 500 people who had converged on the Padmavati temple for a glimpse of the anti-graft crusader on his return from New Delhi.
The village gram sabha scheduled for Thursday was postponed to Friday. A “gram bhojan” has also been organised on the occasion for about 5,000 villagers.
Pathare said that Arvind Kejriwal, one of the leaders from Team Anna and an architect of the draft for the Jan Lokpal Bill, will hold a meeting with him on September 10.
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