Brand Anna is new fashion trend in India

New Delhi: Brand Anna is selling like hot cakes. And that too in front of Tihar Prison, which has never looked so bright since it was built in 1958.

The sea of people is in sync with their leader anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare — doctors, engineers, lawyers, architects, professors, students, chartered accountants and housewives. For the first time in history, inmates of Tihar Prison have shown solidarity with the social activist. They are willing to fast along with him!

Arrest is the least of the worries of these professionals. While many have already courted it, others are not shying away from it.

Says lawyer Tarun Malek, who gathered along with others at India Gate. "We are here to teach the government the meaning of democracy. The ruling party politicians are saying we have been motivated and the movement was orchestrated. Can they still not see the crescendo that has built up in just a few hours in virtually all states?"

It's no more a one-man-show. Thousands are wearing T-shirts and caps with the ‘I Am Anna' message written across. The calculations of the government couldn't have been more wrong. While it thought an indefinite fast by Anna and team would lead to a huge problem in the days ahead, it had not foreseen the extent of support for the crusader.

Judicial custody

On August 16, Anna was whisked from Mayur Vihar and taken to the officers' mess at Civil Lines followed by the office of Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) in Rajouri Garden. He was presented before the special executive magistrate and asked to sign a bond. Refusing that, he was given seven-day judicial custody.

Ironically, he spent time in Tihar Prison where the 2G scam accused A Raja and Commonwealth Games 2010 scam accused Suresh Kalmadi are lodged.

The government's reasoning is that the right to protest is subject to reasonable restrictions and that Hazare's demand for acceptance of his version of the Lokpal Bill was beyond constitutional parameters.

But this seems to make no sense to most people. It's cutting no ice with sections of the articulate public that has hit the capital's streets with an innovative slogan, ‘Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Isahi, Anna Tere Chaar Sipahi.'

Even as it released Anna, wishing to send a message that it was not at war with the social activist, the crusader has trained his guns and is willing to fight the battle to the finish.

Litigants

Meanwhile, litigants suffered and work in Delhi courts was hit yesterday as lawyers in all six district court complexes went on strike to protest the arrest of the anti-corruption activist.

Hundreds of lawyers staged a sit-in at the Tis Hazari district courts and later marched to Kashmere Gate, about a kilometre away, and returned to the court complex, shouting slogans in support of Hazare. The protest started with a sit-in at Tis Hazari where lawyers sang devotional songs.

Narendra Dhoni, the elder brother of hometown boy and Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, yesterday said his family supports the anti-corruption agitation of Gandhian Hazare.

"Anna is a star of the country and he is a bigger player than my brother, Mahendra Singh Dhoni," Narendra Dhoni said while participating in a support march for Hazare.

With inputs from IANS