By IANS,
New Delhi : ‘Anna caps’ were missing, as were reverberations of Anna Hazare slogans, and an array of life-size posters of yoga guru Baba Ramdev could be seen at the venue of the Ramdev-Anna Hazare fast against corruption and black money here Sunday.
Ramdev dominated the Jantar Mantar venue where septuagenarian Hazare shared the stage with him. Unlike previous Anna fasts at Jantar Mantar and Ramlila ground where he drew the limelight, it was Ramdev who had more visibility Sunday, in terms of supporters too.
“My entire family has been attending Ramdev ji’s yoga camps. He is fighting for a good cause, so we came to support him,” Rajendra Singh Bhati, a farmer from Haryana, told IANS.
“We are a clan of 12 families who have come to support this fast from Khera village,” he added.
Bhati was not alone, hundreds of others came from rural heartlands pulled by a mix of yoga guru’s fame and Anna’s anti-corruption image. But what was missing was the Anna zing that had graced his previous fasts in the national capital and the middle class that supported the anti-corruption crusader.
“In previous fasts, I could feel people had genuinely stood up against widespread corruption. The reason I did not go this time was because it seemed more of a gimmick and political publicity,” said Khushwant Mishra, a school teacher from west Delhi, who supported the earlier fasts.
There were few wavering tri-colours and ‘I am Anna’ caps. The tri-colour paint adorning faces were also rare.
In the sultry afternoon, 24-year old Kamlesh who was at the venue to make some quick money by painting tri-colour “regrets wasting his Sunday”.
“I have hardly managed to paint 50 faces since morning. I made a lot of money at the Anna Hazare fast at Ramlial Maidan last August,” he said.
At the fast site, pictures of Rajbala, a 51-year-old woman who died after the alleged police action on Ramdev supporters at the Ramlila ground agitation last year, were on display.
The fast has been called to mark one year of Ramdev’s last agitation at Ramlila ground, from where he was arrested in the middle of the night between June 3 and 4.