Conditions apply, says Anna on support from Ramdev

Social activist Anna Hazare on Tuesday made conditional allowing yoga guru Ramdev to join his proposed indefinite fast on Lokpal issue from August 16.

"We have certain conditions if Ramdev wants to sit on the fast along with me. If these conditions are met, we can think of his participation," Hazare told mediapersons in Pune.

He, however, declined to spell out his conditions before the media. While supporting Ramdev's cause of unearthing of black money wholeheartedly, the Gandhian also made it clear that he had no reservations about the former's motives for the agitation.

Hazare said the Congress-led government's posturing against him and Ramdev were an indication that the government was not committed to rooting out corruption.

He reiterated that he was ready to face bullets if the government tried to crush his agitation as was done with the Ramdev stir at Ramlila grounds.

"If I do not get permission to start my fast at Jantar Mantar, I will go to Rajghat. If that too is prevented, I will continue my agitation in jail, courting arrest," he said.

In a scathing attack on the Central government, Hazare said it consists of people "who are drunk with power".

The Gandhian was reacting to a query on whether he would be compelled to undertake a fast unto death in the absence of a positive response from the government in incorporating the provisions suggested by the civil society in drafting a strong Lokpal bill, widening its scope and purview.

"There are persons in the government who are drunk with power. I cannot say that I will not be required to undertake the fast on August 16. I am ready for any eventuality," he said.

Referring Digvijay Singh's reported remarks, which the Congress general secretary subsequently denied, that Hazare's agitation would meet the same fate as that of yoga guru Baba Ramdev's, the activist said, "This means that they have not understood the meaning of democracy which gives every citizen a right to agitate to protect the interests of the nation and its people."

Image: Anna Hazare (centre) with Baba Ramdev (left) and Swami Agnivesh (right) at a fast against corruption in New Delhi

Photograph: Reuters