New Delhi: With government refusing to blink, Team Anna on Thursday decided to end its indefinite fast on Friday and take a plunge into politics.
“It is another two years to go to polls in 2014. We have to go to people throughout the country in the next one-and- half years. “Why waste time on fasts? Tomorrow at 5 pm, all fast will end,” Hazare told supporters at Jantar Mantar at the end of an address in which he enunciated the civil society’s approach to providing a political alternative to the current system.
However, questions still remained as to what Team Anna would do regarding the political alternative and whether they would launch a party themselves.
Team Anna asked people to send their suggestions about politicial alternative through text messages or emails or through the opinion poll in their website.
Hazare’s announcement on calling off the fast demanding Lokpal Bill at 5 pm on Friday came on a day when a group of eminent personalities, including jurist V R Krishna Iyer and former Army Chief Gen V K Singh, appealed for an end to the fast as the health of Arvind Kejriwal and two others deteriorated.
The decision also comes in the wake of the government’s steadfast attitude in not engaging with Hazare and his team, a year after both sides were involved in drafting a law and Parliament adopting a “sense of House” resolution on passage of Lokpal Bill.
On the earlier occasions in April and August last year, the Government appeared to have come under pressure from Hazare’s protests which drew huge crowds in the capital and elsewhere.
The protest fast has been marked by low turnout, contradictory statements and levelling of wild charges against government and its functionaries. While Hazare refused to attack Pranab Mukherjee after he became President, his team members continued to level allegations against him. (PTI)