Hazare sets 15 August deadline, swears by Jan Lokpal Bill

Anna Hazare has vowed to intensify his anti-corruption agitation and go on another fast from 16 August if the Lokpal Bill was not passed by Parliament by 15 August.

The government is creating artificial obstacles to smooth functioning of the drafting committee as it did not want to yield ground on the black money issue, he said.

Hazare and the other civil society members of the Lokpal drafting committee also challenged the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to conduct a referendum on the citizen's support to Jan Lokpal Bill.

"Let there be a referendum in the country on the Lokpal Bill prepared by the government and the Jan Lokpal Bill prepared by the civil society. Let the one that has maximum support of people be passed in Parliament," Prashant Bhushan, senor lawyer and a member representing the civil society on the Lokpal Bill drafting committee, said.

The veteran Gandhian also chided home minister P Chidambaram for his statement that the anti-corruption agitations by Hazare and Ramdev were a threat to democracy and a form of blackmail.

"If Chidambaram sees that these kinds of protests are a threat to democracy and if he calls it blackmail, we will continue to blackmail him," he said.