New Delhi, July 26: Raising the pitch against UPA government on corruption issue, Team Anna on wednesday launched an indefinite fast here with activists attacking new President Pranab Mukherjee though Anna Hazare refrained from making any personal remarks.
Hazare stuck to his pet theme of bringing a strong Lokpal Bill and threatened a ‘jail bharo' agitation if government does not concede to his demands and campaigning for candidates chosen by people in the next Lok Sabha elections.
But activists Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan indulged in a no-hold barred attacks on Mukherjee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, levelling serious charges of corruption.
Union Ministers P Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal and former Minister Virbhadra Singh were their other targets.
“If Lokpal was there, Mukherjee would not have been the President. The constitution provides immunity to President from any investigation. Now Congress has put a ‘chadar' (veil) of constitution on the President,” Kejriwal said addressing a modest crowd which started thinning towards evening.
Team Anna had levelled allegations against 15 Union Ministers and demanded a special team of retired Supreme Court judges be constituted to probe the charges, one of the demands of the protesters. The other two demands are fast track court for trying cases against MPs and the special team to probe cases against party chiefs.
They also accused Congress and BJP of indulging in corruption.
Reacting to the protest, Union Minister Salman Khurshid took a dig at Team Anna saying they were raising issues which have been rejected by the Supreme Court and if they did not have any faith in it, they could approach the United Nations.
Addressing the protesters, Hazare spoke only about Lokpal and not about other demands or make any specific reference to Mukherjee, Singh or any ministers.
“One day, they will have to bring Lokpal or they will have to go. People are not getting justice as all machinery is under government...why Lokpal is not enacted? Because if there is a Lokpal, these ministers will have to go to jail,” he said.
