Thaindian News

New Delhi, July 27 (IANS) Team Anna’s fast at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar for a stringent anti-corruption Lokpal bill entered its third day Friday, with the crowds still remaining thin.

There were only about 400 people at 12 noon, contrary to the thousands that had turned out at Team Anna’s earlier agitations in Delhi. Veteran activist Anna Hazare, however, said Friday morning that size of the crowd did not matter.

“It is not by gathering a crowd that a movement becomes stronger. The success and failure of a movement does not depend on the size of the crowd,” he said at Jantar Mantar.

Asked about the health of fasting team member Arvind Kejriwal, Hazare said it was not a matter of concern.

“This is not a matter of concern,” he said.

Referring to the future of the movement, he said: “We have nothing to do with whether the government agrees or not (to the Lokpal bill). We have to just do our duty for the benefit of the country and society. Even if the government does not agree, our movement will go on.”

But he also said he was hopeful that the Lokpal bill will be passed sooner or later.

“They (the government) have not come from England or Pakistan. They are our own people. And if they do not think about the country and people, then who is to be blamed? Don’t they think about it? The people of the country have selected you. Is it not their duty (to pass the Lokpal bill)?”

Team Anna member Kiran Bedi was not present Friday. “Today in Pune for two prior committed speaking engagements. Perhaps a bit of a break of a different kind,” she tweeted.