The Lokpal bill was not passed since the last 42 years by the upper house ie the Rajya Sabha in parliament, however it was introduced ten times but not cleared.
A group India against corruption was formed in 2010 that comprised of social workers like Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi etc. they drafted a new Jan Lokpal bill with the help of Justice Santosh Hegde, Shanti Bhusahn and advocate Prashnat Bhushan and had demanded from the government that this bill should be passed.
While Anna Hazare had declared his fast for the implementation of the bill government didn’t paid heed to the same. The group also met Prime Minister but the PM only said that till 13 May nothing could be done as assembly elections would be going on in 5 states. The group was disappointed and decided to go ahead with their protest.
Just before the fast the group also met National advisory council under the chairmanship of Sonia Gandhi, but they offered that the matters above rs 10 lakh should only be considered under this act, Hazare refused for the same.
As he sat on fast on April 5, he received a mammoth support throughout the country especially metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Delhi , Banglore, Hyderabad, Kolkata etc. Many people had sat on indefinite fast along with Anna to show their solidarity and support.
On the second day itself Sharad Pawar who was in the Group of Ministers formed by the government to check corruption had to quit the seat due to public pressure.
The electronic media picked up the issue from the first day and Anna became a celebrity adding more weightage to his points. He was the topic for the country to talk for almost four days of his fasting and he finally broke his fats on April 8.
Print media also supported ably and as a result of the media and public pressure government had to bow down and a committed of 10 members – five from government and five from civil society was formed to discuss the bill and it was promised that the bill would be passed till 30 June.
Many Bollywood celebrities like Anupam Kher, Amir Khan, Shabana azmi, Urmila Matondkar joined the protest and visited Anna Hazare.
Anna has also threatened that if the bill is not passed till 15 Aug he would go on a hunger strike again.
Committee members form civil society
Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal, Santosh Hegde, Shanti Bhushan, Prashant Bhushan
Committee members from government side
Pranad Mukharjee – Chair person, Kapil Sibal, Salman Khursheed, P.Chidambaram, Verrapa Moily
