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Monday 12 December 2011

IAC agitation elbows out other movements


Amid all the hype and media attention to the one-day fast of veteran Gandhian Anna Hazare at Jantar Mantar for a strong anti-corruption legislation, there are few other movements on varied issues that have been relegated to the periphery at the venue, some allegedly forcefully by the volunteers of Team Anna.

“We had been sitting here since November 1 in support of our demand for a separate Telengana state. We are also protesting non-violently, but on Saturday night some volunteers of ‘India Against Corruption’ came and asked us to remove our tent from here. When we refused, they even threatened us .

We called the policemen, who also meekly suggested us to shift our tent and we have been removed from the main venue now,” Rajeev Khosla, General Secretary of National Panthers Party Delhi Pradesh, sitting in a small tent on the pavement of the road, where huge stage for social activist had been erected told Deccan Herald.

“Isn’t our movement  a genuine or don’t we represent sentiments of the people of Telengana?” Khosla questioned.

Surprisingly, this happened despite Delhi Police's appeal to Team Anna on Saturday to ensure space for the protest of smaller organisations as well.

Kanta Rani, president of Mafia Unmoolan Samiti, who had been staging dharna for five days opposing the enactment Lokpal also alleged to have been forcefully removed from their place of protest. Sitting in open with few of her supporters on a mat at the back of Anna Hazare’s stage, Kanta Rani alleged that her tent was forcefully removed by the supporters of anti-graft crusader.

“We had been sitting here since December 6. We are against this Lokpal idea because we believe that the need is to strengthen the existing anti-corruption laws and such a machinery can lead manifold of corruption. They (Anna supporters) don’t like our protest, so, on Saturday night they removed all our banners and tents,” Kanta Rani said.

“They are behaving like George Bush of America, who had said either you are with us or against,” said 60-year-old Shahzadi Begum, a supporter of Kanta Rani vowing to continue their protest.

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