Calling for immediate dissolution of Parliament and startingelection process, two battle-hardened war veterans and anti-corruptioncrusaders “ Anna Hazare and Gen (Retd) V K Singh on Monday announced formationof a new social-awakening front to serve the people’s cause and bring change ingovernance.
The duo issued a joint statement “ “The Governance isanti-Constitution”, which by and large said that the government of the day wasnot serving the interests of the people. “The existing governmental system hascompletely disregarded the soul and spirit of Constitution,” the jointstatement said slamming the government and political parties blaming them forthe price rise, ignoring the interests of people and serving the corporatelobby.
Detailing on the new movement, the septuagenarian Hazaresaid that from January 30 next, he and the General would start touring theentire country and awaken people on important issues, which ultimately wouldhelp people in electing good candidates in the years ahead.
“The first job now is to have one to two people at the topin each state….we have received applications from NGOs, former IAS and IPSofficers, former military officers and individuals….the applications are beingaccessed and backgrounds being checked,” he said.
“Before Diwali we would have the bye-laws ready and a namefor the organization,” he said, adding that it would be followed by a massiveall-India campaign, in which he expects “crores to join”.
For Hazare this is one of the first major steps since heparted ways with India Against Corruption founder Arvind Kejriwal, who haddecided to go political. However, Hazare said that he would support Kejriwalfully if he contests elections. Asked if he would support all IAC candidates,he said: “We are not supporting any political party, but persons.”
Gen Singh said that they would judge people on the basis of“good image, eager to serve and competence”. Asked whether in the nextelections they would help people in choosing candidates, Anna said: “Electionsare two years away….but we have our criteria when General saab has said.”
Gen Singh further said: “People have the right to elect anew Parliament by dissolving the current one. When a people’s Parliament iselected, there would be all types of improvement like Lokpal, ruraldevelopment, right to reject, empowerment of gram sabha, and amendments to allthe redundant law enacted by the Britishers.”
Earlier, claiming that the people had lost faith in thegovernment on the core issues of the use of land, water, forests and mineralwealth, Gen Singh said “Rivers are being privatized, jungles are given toprivate companies under the garb of mining, and adivsasis are being displaceddue to land acquisition where the government appears to be siding with the privatecompanies.”
“Who has the right onjungles, land, minerals and water? People have the right to decide and the nextelection will decide who has this right,” Gen Singh said. He said theparliament has the responsibility of framing the policies for the betterment ofthe deprived “ fishermen, farmers, backward classes, Muslims and minorities,but the UPA dispensation had only yielded corruption, scams, and prise rise.
Stating that Congress government was “in minority” on itsrecent decisions of FDI in retail, hikes in fuel prices and cooking gas, GenSingh said “This government was not taking decisions, and when it startedtaking decisions, they are anti-people.”
Coming formally together on a public platform for the firsttime, Hazare and Gen Singh rooted vehemently for the dissolution of Parliamentand conduct of fresh polls on the ground that “the current system hascompletely ignored the directive principles enshrined in the Constitution andhas surrendered to market forces.Charging that the existing governmental systemhad completely disregarded the soul and spirit of the Constitution, Hazare andGen Singh unveiled the contours of their new social outfit, through which theyplanned to create awareness and bring about changes in the system in the run-upto the 2014 general elections.
Hazare revealed that a working committee comprising 1200Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) engineers had been constituted to executethe programme.
The UPA Government has taken several controversial decisions“be it FDI in multi-brand retail or hike in diesel prices “ despite being inminority,” Gen Singh said.Charging that Prime Minister had “ignored” theprinciple of “collective responsibility”, Gen Singh alleged that the Governmentwas framing its policies to benefit big businesses rather than the common man.
