Egypt, Tunisia and now — Jantar Mantar.
That’s what a gaggle of school students felt Anna Hazare’s protest site
had become. “Tunisia, Egypt and now India,” said one banner. Teenager
Ankita, who held aloft the poster, said she could not hold herself back.
“A revolution is on. And I wanted to pitch in,” said the Class XII
student of a reputable city school. Schoolmate Ashish Parikh nodded. “It
is the tipping point.”
They were among the 1,000-odd people who had converged at Jantar Mantar
to support Hazare on his third day of hunger strike to demand a tougher
Lok Pal Bill. Hazare’s aides claimed the figure was close to 2,000.
A Delhi police officer didn’t seem to agree, though. “It’s like a Kumbh
Mela in terms of the variety of people, but not the numbers. The noise
on TV would make you believe Jantar Mantar has turned into another
Tahrir Square. It is yet to cause even a minor traffic jam,” he said.
In a scene straight out of Peepli Live — the Aamir Khan-produced parody
of the way TV amplifies events — media representatives at the site
rushed to the stage after hearing Hazare had taken ill and was being
shifted to hospital. They returned disappointed. It wasn’t Hazare but
two of his associates.
The septuagenarian himself said he could fast for seven more days. “I
have been working for a long time,” he said in one of his many speeches
despite a rise in blood pressure.
Hazare apologised to Uma Bharti, who was asked to leave yesterday by his
aides. But the former BJP leader warned against the activist sweeping
generalisations. “All politicians are not bad. He should not allow his
movement to become negative,” she said.
Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar came, as did actor Raza Murad. Other stars tweeted support.