By IANS,
Mumbai: Anna Hazare’s agitation attracted a modest crowd in Mumbai but Indians in the US and Japan Tuesday lent an international touch to the fight for a strong Lokpal bill.
In Tokyo, several Indians and India Against Corruption (IAC) volunteers submitted a memorandum to the Indian ambassador, demanding a strong Lokpal bill, activists informed IANS by email.
“We pointed out that the constitution begins with the phrase ‘We The People Of India’ and not ‘We the elected people Of India’. Hence it is our request that objections raised by the civil society activists to the proposed (Lokpal) bill should be given due consideration,” said activist Rohan Agrawal.
Sameer Haldavanekar, another activist, said corruption impaired the aspect of social and economic justice and expressed regret that the government was more concerned with short-term political goals rather than addressing the disease of corruption.
Their colleague, Swapnali Puradkar, expressed the hope that “dilutions or diversions” would be rectified in the final bill.
She urged the government to keep peoples’ interest above its political ambitions and empower Indians with a strong tool to tackle corruption.
Puradkar said Hazare supporters from Japan had come to Mumbai to show solidarity.
“From Friday (Dec 30), we will start calling our local MPs and the PMO (Prime Minister’s Office) from Japan,” Agrawal said.
On the US west coast, many Indians in different cities also come out in support of Hazare’s latest agitation in Mumbai, according to IAC.
They held meetings expressing favour for a strong Lokpal bill which would root out the evil of corruption from India, one of the co-ordinators Bhairavi Doshi said in an email.
“As in the past, we plan to have similar programmes, garner support through social networking sites, emails, personal contacts and other forms to lend support to Hazare,” she said.