By IANS,
New Delhi : The thousands who packed the India Gate lawns here cheering jailed Gandhian Anna Hazare for his war on corruption included an entire spectrum of the society, from struggling vendors to well-to-do businessmen.
All through the day, crowds hailing the Gandhian as their hero kept pouring into the ground, venting their anger over what they said was the government’s lack of will to curb the cancer of corruption.
There were school and college students — the most vocal ones — housewives, retired government servants, autorickshaw drivers, teachers, those who took part in India’s freedom struggle and traders.
There were some political activists too but they were vastly outnumbered by the dominantly unattached middle class.
Placards and hand-written posters betrayed the mood of the crowd.
One featured Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and ministers Kapil Sibal and P. Chidambaram as ‘3 Idiots’.
One slogan read: “We gained independence to lose it.”
Almost everyone insisted that the Anna-led civil society’s version of the Lokpal Bill was what should become law, not the government-sponsored version introduced in parliament.
“Anna and the people have been deceived by the government. I am here to support Anna. He can bring a sea change in the society riddled with corruption,” said Rajesh Khurana, a protestor.
“People have tolerated corruption for decades. The country needs a change,” added Meenakshi Singh, a teacher.