By IANS,
Mumbai: While Anna Hazare’s Lokpal agitation is gathering momentum, certain groups in the city, including noted filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, are vocally protesting his “call for a draconian law”.
The National Campaign for Equal Opportunity (NCEO), a forum that is protesting Hazare’s agitation, is planning to organise awareness campaigns across the city to educate people about existing laws and why neither the Jan Lokpal bill nor the Lokpal bill are warranted.
“Our Constitution is strong enough to investigate and punish the corrupt. Why do we need to pass a new law,” asked Sunil Kadam, the convenor of NCEO.
“I sat on a dharna for three days from Dec 22-24 to protest against Anna’s agitation. I have nothing against Anna, but we are strictly against the Jan Lokpal, which, if passed as per Anna’s wishes, will turn out to be a draconian law,” he added.
Kadam said that instead of reducing corruption, the new law will only encourage more corruption. “I can explain this if given a chance and an opportunity to speak in front of the country’s leaders and Anna,” he said.
Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, who has been strongly condemning Hazare’s version of Lokpal bill voiced his view that Hazare can, in no way, be called a Gandhian.
“If Anna Hazare believes in spirit of democracy, then he should understand the fundamentals on which a democracy breathes and lives by. Any person who says my view is the only view, and I am the only measure through which right or wrong can be judged, is not representing the democratic view,” Bhatt told IANS.
Bhatt said he has been a “victim of Hazare’s rage” when angry protesters staged a sit-in outside his residence earlier when he expressed his views.
“I have been a victim of Anna’s rage when he was agitating at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi. I had, back then, expressed my dissenting view against his views as an independent individual. But he had sent his people to my house to agitate,” Bhatt said.
“I was not an MLA or an MP or a government official. I had just expressed my independent view and you send goons to my place to agitate?” Bhatt exclaimed.
He went on to say that Hazare is “a self-proclaimed Gandhian” and “only a fascist masquerading as a Gandhian”.
Bhatt also said that Hazare can continue to carry out his “peaceful protests” but the matters of the country rest in hands of representatives of the country in parliament.
“Any attempt to consolidate power in one particular organisation or institution will only be dangerous for the democracy. I am appalled at this spirit and the very impulse from which the Jan Lokpal has emerged and I oppose it vehemently,” he told IANS.
Namdeo Dhasal, founder-president of Dalit Panther, is also against Hazare’s agitation. He demanded that the central government should take action against Hazare who has been “promoting disharmony in the nation”.
“Anna and his movement for a strong Jan Lokpal bill have threatened the very basics of the Indian Constitution and the central government should take immediate action against him,” Dhasal said.
Criticising the demand of Team Anna to include the prime minister and class IV employees of the government under the purview of the Lokpal, Dhasal said that both the moves are “unconstitutional”.
Dhasal also announced that under the aegis of the Dalit Panther, he would be holding a day-long ‘Save the constitution movement’ at Chaityabhoomi in Mumbai on Dec 27.