Lucknow\/Kanpur\/Kolkata\/New Delhi, Dec 11 (ANI): Veteran social activist Anna Hazare\u2019s daylong protest fast at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi galvanised hundreds across the country, as his supporters warned the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government at the Centre of a prolonged agitation if key demands were not included in the Lokpal Bill.
\nHazare\u2019s supporters gathered in large numbers in Uttar Pradesh\u2019s Lucknow city to demand the inclusion of three key demands outlined in the Bill.
\nPurshottam Shukla, a supporter of Hazare and himself a serial hunger striker, said the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, had promised to include the demands put forward by Team Anna, but the government had backtracked on its position.
\nShukla further said that he would support Hazare in a prolonged agitation against the Congress-led UPA Government if the demands were still excluded.
\n\u201cThe three key demands that were remaining in the end, our Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) had assured that they will be included and had said that Annaji (Anna Hazare) should break his fast. Now, again they are not agreeing to these demands and the government has backtracked again,\u201d said Shukla.
\n\u201cIt is our one-day demonstration, a waning demonstration, so that the government agrees to our demands, but if they do not agree then we will sit on an indefinite hunger strike again from December 27 and we will hold a stronger anti-corruption movement as compared to the last time,\u201d he added.
\nSimilar scenes were witnessed in Uttar Pradesh\u2019s Kanpur city, where Hazare\u2019s supporters wearing \u2018I am Anna\u2019 caps staged a sit-in and sang patriotic songs to express their solidarity with the veteran social activist.
\n\u201cThe common people have elected you (lawmakers) to the Parliament. The Prime Minister had promised and had given a written assurance that the government will include the three key demands outlined in the Jan Lokpal Bill. But we have been betrayed,\u201d said Rakesh Yadav, a Hazare supporter.
\n\u201cSo, keep in mind that if we can elect you in Parliament then we can overthrow you from Parliament and this demonstration is a warning to highlight that,\u201d he added.
\nMeanwhile, the locals in West Bengal \u2018s Kolkata city also came out on the streets and waved the national flag to mark their support to Hazare.
\nHazare sat on a daylong fast at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi to protest against the proposals of Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Lokpal Bill.
\nHazare, who is fighting for a strong anti-graft bill, has been demanding that the lower bureaucracy should be brought within the ambit of the Lokpal besides provisions for Citizen\u2019s Charter and setting up of Lokayuktas under a central law.
\nThe 74-year-old social activist has also warned the government that he would sit on an indefinite fast from December 27 at the Ramlila Maidan here if a strong Lokpal Bill is not passed in the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament.
\nThe Lokpal Bill is seen as a weapon to root out corruption and nepotism from the government machinery and in public life.
\nThe proposed Bill envisages the setting up of a national anti-corruption watchdog to check financial mismanagement and corrupt practices that have deeply pervaded several democratic and civic institutions of India .
\nHazare had staged an indefinite hunger strike against graft that he gave up on August 28 when the government agreed to deliberate the issues raised by him and his forum vis-\u00e0-vis the passage and enactment of the Lokpal Bill, a suggestion that has received unprecedented nationwide backing.<\/p>\n\n