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Anna Hazare today ended his 98-hour hunger strike after government issued a gazette notification constituting a 10-member Joint Committee to draft an effective Lok Pal Bill, but he pledged a long struggle against corruption and for reform of the electoral system.
The 73-year-old anti-corruption campaigner called off his fast-unto-death campaign on the fifth day with a little girl giving him a glass of lime juice at 10.45 am at Jantar Mantar, the nerve-centre of the campaign for a strong law to combat political and administrative graft.
8:00 pm: Supporting the campaign of social activist Anna Hazare for a stringent anti-graft law, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal expressed concern over corruption in the country.
'Corruption is the main issue before the nation and there is a need for self-introspection...we all should root out corruption from society,' Dhumal said. Read more on Yahoo! News
7:30 pm: After successfully leading the agitation on Lokpal Bill Anna Hazare said "power-hungry" politicians will not easily accept any bill having stringent provisions against corruption or "shed" the power they enjoy.
"But on this issue, people will get together," he said adding, MPs and MLAs were being elected to serve the people and not to be their masters. "But they (elected representatives) have forgotten this."
Hazare, who has set August 15 as the deadline for passage of the bill, said, "I feel there will be need for a bigger agitation in future (to get the bill passed in Parliament)."
"I don't think they (MPs) will easily accede to the passage of the bill as they feel it will cut down their powers." Read on
6:00 pm: 'I am nowhere near him,' Gandhian activist Anna Hazare said when he was compared with Mahatma Gandhi. 'I am inspired by the thoughts of Gandhiji,' he added. Read on
3:30 pm: Anna Hazare said he would tour the entire country to campaign against corruption and promised more struggles ahead after breaking his 97-hour hunger strike. He also had a word of thanks for the youth.
'I have broken the fast today because the government has fulfilled our demand by issuing this order,' he said, triumphantly flashing the gazette notifying the formation of a 10-member panel to draft a stringent Lokpal (ombudsman) Bill to combat corruption in high places. Read on
2:30 pm: Reacting to the Centre's decision of agreeing to issue a formal order to set up a committee for drafting a strong Lokpal Bill, Infosys Chief Mentor N R Narayana Murty hailed the outcome of the protest launched by social activist Anna Hazare.
"Corruption is a phenomenon that affects the entire civil society and therefore Anna Hazare's desire that civil society plays an important role in defining the parameters for Lokpal is absolutely justified," he said. Read on
2:15 pm: Anna Hazare suffered high blood pressure after he ended his 97-hour fast at Jantar Mantar and his doctors have asked him to take rest and not to speak.
2:00 pm: The legal fraternity Saturday applauded the victory of Anna Hazare and rights activists in forcing the government to take on board the members of the civil society for drafting anti-graft Lokpal bill, but cautioned the road ahead is full of difficulties.
1:30 pm: Following is the text of the Gazettee Notification issued by the government constituting the Joint Drafting Committee comprising ministers and civil society activists to prepare the draft Lok Pal Bill.
“The Joint Drafting Committee shall consist of five nominee ministers of the Government of India and five nominees of Shri Anna Hazare (including himself).
The five nominee Ministers of the Government of India are as under:
Pranab Mukherjee, Union Minister of Finance, P Chidambaram, Union Minister of Home Affairs, M Veerappa Moily, Union Minister of Law and Justice, Kapil Sibal, Union Minister of Human Resource and Development and Minister of Communication and Information Technology and Salman Khursheed, Union Minister of Water Resources and Minister of Minority Affairs.
The five nominees of Anna Hazare (including himself) are as under:
Anna Hazare, Justice N Santosh Hegde, Shanti Bhushan, Senior Advocate, Prashan Bhushan, Advocate and Arvind Kejriwal.
The Chairperson of the Joint Drafting Committee shall be Pranab Mukherjee.
The Co-Chairperson of the Joint Drafting Committee shall be Shanti Bhushan.
The Convenor of the Join Drafting Committee shall be M Veerappa Moily.
The Joint Drafting Committee shall commence its work forthwith and evolve its own procedure to prepare the proposed legislation.
The Joint Drafting Committee shall complete its work latest by 30th June, 2011.”
12:45 pm:Waving tricolour and singing and dancing to the tunes of drums, people made Jantar Mantar a carnival site.Youth and old, men and women, poor and rich -- all stood shoulder to shoulder at the nerve-centre of the anti-corruption protest shouting ‘Vande Mataram’, ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ and ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ as Hazare sipped juice offered by a girl to end his fast which lasted 98 hours.
12:15 pm: Although most people in the crowd compared him to Mahatma Gandhi, Hazare himself did not take the Mahatma's name. Instead he referred to revolutionaries Bhagat Singh , Sukhdev and Rajguru, who were hanged by the British. He said the country was indebted to them.
12:05 pm: Anna Hazare said after breaking his hunger strike that he would tour the entire country to campaign against corruption and warned of more struggles ahead.
Saluting the media and fellow Indians for what he described as a people's victory, the activist, in his early 70s, said he was ending his fast because the government had agreed to almost all his demands.
11:40 am: Shanti Bhushan, former law minister and co-chairman of the joint committee to draft a stringent anti-graft law, said that he expected the proposed Lokpal Bill to be passed unanimously by both houses of parliament. The government Saturday notified a 10-member team that would draft the Lokpal (Ombudsman) bill, following a 97-hour hunger strike by veteran Gandhian Anna Hazare , which catalysed a mass movement against corruption.
The panel will have five members each from the government and the civil society. It would include Hazare as well as former Supreme Court judge and present Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde, Shanti Bhushan, RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal and eminent lawyer Prashant Bhushan.
Bhushan said there was "no doubt" that the government wants to implement a Lokpal Bill. "Because, after all, the government wants to enact a law which will excite the popular imagination of the people. Because it is only after enacting the law that it gets electoral dividend and the Congress party is headed by a person like Sonia Gandhi , who has the pulse of the people," he said.
11:30 am: Hundreds of citizens who had been fasting at the Freedom Park here pledging their support to anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare called off their fast. Moments after Hazare ended his four-day old indefinite fast in the wake of government setting up a 10-member panel to draft the Lokpal legislation to curb corruption, those fasting here turned jubilant.
11:15 am: Here's the timeline of Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement.
11:00 am: He once contemplated suicide and even wrote a two-page essay on why he wanted to end his life. Today, Anna Hazare is the face of India's fight against corruption. Here's a brief story of an army truck driver who became Gandhian activist
"I have broken the fast today because the government has fulfilled our demand by issuing this order"
Hazare
10:40 am: Anna Hazare broke his 98-hour fast with a few sips from a glass given to him by a little girl to loud cheers and the strains of Mahatma Gandhi's favourite hymn 'Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram' at Jantar Mantar. Hazare called off the protest after the government promised to bring in the Lokpal (ombudsman) bill in the monsoon session of parliament.
10:00 am: 'It is a victory of the democracy,' Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal said of the accord that had been reached on forming a joint committee of ministers and civil society leaders to draft an anti-graft legislation that had prompted social reformer Anna Hazare to announce that he would end Saturday morning his fast-unto-death undertaken for the measure.
9:00 am: The government on Saturday issued the official notification for the Committee to redraft Jan Lokpal Bill. Activist Swami Agnivesh went to Cabinet Minister Kapil Sibal's residence to collect the notification issued by the government. After receiving the copy, Swami Agnivesh said that the government has agreed beyond their demands.
"I am thankful to Prime Minister, Sonia and Kapil Sibal. The UPA government cares about the concerns of the people." Read more
8:00 am: All checks, no balances? Those who have raised questions about the Anna Hazare-led revolution now ongoing predicate their arguments on one simple premise: It is necessary to root out corruption, yes -- but the Jan Lok Pal Bill as proposed is not the tool to do it with. That is a nuanced position, and in the shrill climate of the times, nuance is not necessarily welcome. Yet, the debate to be purposeful needs to look not merely at the problem of corruption, but the validity of the methods and tools chosen to fight it. And such a rigorous examination comes from Deepak Patel, who on his blog dissects the bill and points to its fatal flaws. Here's the crux:
"The suggestion is that the Lokpal will be the guardian, the conscience-keeper of the nation. The Lokpal will be pure of heart and beyond all reproach. Who will choose him? Not, as in Scandinavia, the government, but retired judges and, as one draft suggested, recent international award winners. But Nobel prizes and Magsaysay awards are no guarantees of incorruptibility. The entire movement is predicated on a single faulty assumption: that there is no one in government, the executive, the bureaucracy and the judiciary who can be trusted. Therefore, what this model envisages is the creation of an extra-Constitutional fourth super-limb of government, one to which all other limbs are subject. What the model implies is dysfunction: no judge, no bureaucrat and no minister ever able to work without fear of some disgruntled citizen (of which we have no shortage) making a complaint. The PM and the CJI are subject to the Lokpal’s whip; and the Supreme Court is sought to be strait-jacketed in matters relating to the Lokpal. The so-called “people’s Bill” isn’t just disingenuous; it is downright batty."
7:30 am: 'It is a victory of the democracy,' Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal said of the accord that had been reached on forming a joint committee of ministers and civil society leaders to draft an anti-graft legislation that had prompted social reformer Anna Hazare to announce that he would end Saturday morning his fast-unto-death undertaken for the measure.
7:00 am: It took Anna Hazare almost five days of fasting to accomplish every point of an agenda that seemed preposterously ambitious when the week began. Till India pitched in, expressing its solidarity with rallies around Mr Hazare's cause - to force the government to introduce a new tough law to combat corruption, and to ensure that politicians alone are not entrusted with its conception.
So the government has agreed that a committee will be set up with five representatives of civil society, including Mr Hazare, and five ministers. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will be the Chairman; and former Law Minister Shanti Bhushan, who has been picked by Mr Hazare, will be the co-Chairman.
According to NDTV, Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily, Home Minister P Chidambaram, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal and Minister for Minority Affairs Salman Khursheed, are likely to be the other government representatives on the panel.
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