Veteran anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare expressly prohibited participation of any political leader or party in his upcoming three-month padayatra (foot march) against the Narendra Modi-led government’s allegedly ‘anti-farmer’ amendments to the Land Acquisition Act.
“No politician will be allowed to share stage during my agitation,” said Mr. Hazare, speaking from Wardha district on Monday.
He specifically turned down Aam Aadmi Party leader Yogendra Yadav’s request to participate in the march, remarking while Mr. Yadav was welcome in Sevagram (in Wardha), he would not be included in the foot march.
The involvement of political personages would only lead to the furtherance of that party’s agenda, while taking away the spotlight from the farmers’ opposition to the Land Acquisition Act that was the aim of this padayatra , argued the septuagenarian activist who conferred with his associates in Wardha on Monday.
The date of the three-month-long foot march that would traverse more than 1,000 km is tentatively set for March 25. It is to begin from the Gandhi Ashram (Sevagram) and conclude at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan with a number of farmer groups expected to join Mr. Hazare.
“Opposition political parties or leaders are welcome to take the fight to the Central government by launching their own agitations, but they will not be included in my foot march,” said the 77-year-old activist.
Mr. Hazare, however, warned that no violence would be tolerated during the march, whose objective is to educate farmers against the allegedly anti-farmer policies being pursued by the Modi government.
“The march must be peaceful or it would be suspended at the slightest whiff of violence,” said Mr. Hazare.
Mr. Hazare, who last month held a two-day protest of disgruntled farmers opposing the bill at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, has lambasted Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the hastily passed ordinance on the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 Bill as an “anti-farmer gesture that pandered to the interest of the corporate lobby.”
