Anna Hazare’s fast at Raj Ghat — the final resting place of Mahatma Gandhi — is sharply focused on protesting the violent crackdown on anti black money protest last Saturday and upholding the people’s right to peaceful protest.
“The Government is saying that if you are going to say things that are unpleasant to us, we will put you down by force.. This is not acceptable to us,” Arvind Kejriwal, one of India’s most respected social activists and an ally of Anna Hazare said at the fast venue.
“They say, ‘we are the government, who are you to question us?’ They are our representatives.. We are the real power. Don’t we have the right to ask questions,” he asked.
He repeated the concerns of the Civil Society leaders about the misuse of Article 144 — prohibition
He also criticized the political parties for asking for sources of funds for holding protests.
“Let us ask Congress and BJP how much they spend at each rally.. How many rallies they organize, where that money comes from.. We have at least given out an exact beak up of how much money we raised and how each paisa was spent. Can the political parties afford to do that,” Kejriwal asked.
Indian political parties are funded primarily through under-the-carpet ‘donations’ of sums — sometimes reaching hundreds of crores of rupees — from private sector companies. The method of financing politics has been criticised because it makes the party obliged to do the bidding of the companies that supported it. Sometimes, money is ‘donated’ in exchange for a favorable law to be brought in, or a mining contract or other similar favors.
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