Anna Hazare turns heat on Modi govt. over Lokpal, announces fast from Jan 30
Hyderabad, Jan 20 (IBNS) Social activist Anna Hazare, whose fast unto death movement against corruption in 2011 led to the political rise of Aam Aadmi Party and its chief Arvind Kejriwal, will begin another hunger strike from Jan 30 for the Modi government's inability to appoint a Lokpal at the centre.
Anna Hazare had moved the nation with his demand for central and state level Lokpals, an anti-corruption authority or ombudsman who represents the public interest.
The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act was passed in 2013 with amendments in parliament, following the Jan Lokpal movement of Anna Hazare.
Announcing the fast on the sidelines of an event in Hyderabad, Anna Hazare said though the Lokpal Act was made in 2013, the Modi government which came to power in 2014 has done nothing to implement it.
"They have done nothing. So I will go on a fast from Jan 30 in my village Ralegan Siddhi," he told reporters on Saturday.
He said the government is giving excuses instead of acting and implementing the law passed in 2013 to curb corruption.
He said if despite the Parliament passing the law the same was not implemented that the government is taking things towards dictatorship.
While Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement in 2011 created ripples and led to the Lokpal Bill, not much progressed since then.
His comrade in the movement Arvind Kejriwal had differences with him over joining politics to battle corruption and eventually formed his own political party AAP to take on the big national parties over corruption but ended up in several controversies and sharing stages with the leaders and parties it aimed to call out on corruption.
In April 2011, Anna Hazare began a hunger strike at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi to force the then Congress government to introduce the Jan Lokpal Bill.
The Parliament finally enacted The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 in December 2013.
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