Meetings, Lokpal... a slipper thrown

It is happening. The Jan Lokpal Bill movement is turning political. And members of Team Anna have become targets. First Prashant Bhushan, now Arvind Kejriwal, the most vocal of the lot along with former cop Kiran Bedi. The duo has been dubbed “undemocratic”. The two also have Anna’s ear. 

The slipper hurled at Kejriwal at a meeting in Lucknow on Tuesday evening missed him. The act was duly dubbed an “attack”, the “attacker” promptly roughed up by IAC members. A couple of core committee members of the team have dropped off the team citing among others the “undemocratic” attitude of Kejriwal, and Bedi, this when Anna was blogging his silent thoughts on happenings on the Lokpal issue, as also on the Kashmir front.

For Kejriwal, the road to Lucknow was littered with meetings. The Hisar by-poll results had given the perfect launch pad for the UP yatra. There was a smile on Kejriwal’s face. The first public meeting was in Banda district of UP. The group shrugged away all pressures and pulls, focused on the one and only issue — Jan Lokpal Bill. Also, the “enemy” was long decided, and identified — the Congress party.

Earlier, on Sunday evening, Kejriwal, Sisodia and Kumar Vishwas had boarded a train from Delhi to Banda to kick-start their six-day UP tour.   

From then till Tuesday evening, as they travelled from Banda to Kanpur to Lucknow, the trio was greeted by people. At their meeting in Banda it was an audience of rickshaw pullers, shopkeepers, mechanics, local hawkers and construction workers. Many of them did not understand ‘Lokpal’ but they knew of Anna’s fight against corruption.

Apart from the big three meetings, the group held several smaller meetings with village groups, lawyers and local supporters. Strategising was possible only at meal times and when on the road, travelling. The team has a clear realisation that many more attacks lie ahead - both on the person and on the Lokpal movement - and that is why all during the last two days, they tried their best to keep people focussed on ‘Lokpal’ and not let it wander to other issues.

Amidst such a packed timetable, they also knew that it has been months since they sat with their families. Asked about spouses and children, Arvind and Manish smiled, “They (family) understand” the situation, and that their “energies are focussed on Lokpal and nothing else.”