Will do Satyagraha till life in my body: Anna Hazare

Gandhian Anna Hazare on Friday said his Satyagraha (insistence on truth) will start from March 23 and it will continue till life will be in his body.

He said this while addressing a press conference here to announce the launch of Satyagraha from March 23 in Delhi to press for the demands of Lokpal, Lokayukta, farmers’ issues and election reforms.

“The Satyagraha will start from March 23 and there will be no set timeframe to end it. It will continue till life is in my body,” Hazare said.

The Gandhian also complained that the government has still not allotted space for holding the satyagraha. He threatened to start the satyagraha from jail if space is not allotted before March 23.

“We have written 16 times to the government in the last four months to allow the place for satyagraha but till date, it has not been allotted. Four days before, I wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said ‘your government is deliberately not allotting the place and if it is not allotted then I will start satyagraha from jail’,” Hazare said.

He also said that Prime Minister Modi is not replying his letters about the issues of Lokpal, Lokayukta, farmers’ issues and election reforms.

“I have written 40 letters to the Prime Minister over Lokpal, Lokayukta, farmers’ issues and election reforms but he has not replied a single letter. Before elections in 2014, he (Prime Minister Modi) used to say that if the BJP comes to power then it would create model villages akin to Anna Hazare’s model village in Maharashtra. And, now you are not even replying my letters. Don’t reply but allow us a place to do satyagraha,” the Gandhian reformist demanded.

Talking about the farmers’ issue, he demanded setting up of Agriculture Price Commission on the lines of the Election Commission and Niti Aayog.

“Agriculture Price Commission should get autonomy and Constitutional status. There should not be government’s interference in it. Eminent agriculture experts should be appointed in the Agriculture Price Commission and then the farmers will get a fair price for their produce,” Hazare said.

Earlier in the day, he chaired a core committee meeting in which 31 apolitical farmer associations from Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh participated to set the agenda for the March 23 satyagraha.

Retired Supreme Court judge and former Karnataka Lokayukta N Santosh Hegde have announced to join the social activist’s stir.

--ANI