Followers of social activist Anna Hazare on Tuesday declared that they didn't want a confrontation with the Delhi police, in an apparent reaction to Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal's strong statement against the "abusive language" allegedly used by the activists.
No defiance of prohibitory orders, no courting arrest by insisting on a fast at Jantar Mantar and no boycott of the joint committee the government formed at the insistence of Hazare to draft the Lokpal Bill, the group has now decided.
The letter the group wrote to abstain from Monday's meeting was only a token gesture of protest against the midnight crackdown on Baba Ramdev and his supporters, committee member Arvind Kejriwal clarified after the group's brain-storming session in Maharashtra Sadan in Delhi.
"All that we wanted was to postpone the meeting fixed on June 10 since Anna saheb is not available that day. We will attend the meeting now slated for June 15 as announced by Sibal," Kejriwal said.
The group also shifted Hazare's one-day fast on Wednesday in the vicinity of Rajghat to register its protest against the Ramlila crackdown, after the Delhi police refused to grant permission to hold it at Jantar Mantar in view of the prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC clamped in New Delhi district since Saturday night.
According to police sources, the permission was denied citing law and order concerns since the application was drafted in a "threatening language of defiance", as it talked about several thousand protestors congregating at Jantar Mantar.
Kejriwal and former IPS official Kiran Bedi told reporters that their group never believed in confrontation or disruption of law and order and hence it decided to shift the protest to Rajghat, where no prohibitory orders are in force. Kejriwal said he spoke to the Delhi police commissioner, who said there would be no problems if the protests were held at Rajghat.
"Led by Anna Hazare, we shall be fasting and praying and holding a sarva dharma prarthna (all-religion prayer) from 10 am to 6 pm and a public debate on the Lokpal Bill from 5 pm," Kejriwal added.
Bedi, however, expressed her resentment over the denial of permission to stage the protest at Jantar Mantar, pointing out that a peaceful assembly is part of the citizens' democratic rights. But the consensus in the group was to avoid confrontation, particularly at a time when the government is trying to wriggle out from the role it conceded to civil society activists in drafting the Lokpal Bill after Hazare's fast.
Shanti Bhushan, a senior advocate who wrote to the Delhi police on behalf of the group seeking permission for the protest, said the police action at Ramlila Maidan on Saturday was a "blot on democracy" and it was the right of the public to protest.
In his letter to the police, Shanti Bhushan said, "We are informing you and cautioning you that this re-imposition of Section 144 again in Central Delhi in the absence of any emergent situation which imminently threatens breach of peace, is a clear violation of the Citizen's Charter".
"We are putting you on notice that we intend to go ahead with the fast on June 8 which will be totally peaceful and any attempt to prevent the people from reaching Jantar Mantar would be viewed as a serious violation of the fundamental democratic rights of the people. We are expecting a few thousand people on June 8 and we hope that the Delhi police would not be a hurdle for the peaceful assembly," he had stated in his letter.
