Anna Hazare to launch nationwide anti-corruption campaign from UP

Anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare is launching a nationwide anti-corruption campaign from Uttar Pradesh, addressing rallies in Varanasi, Sultanpur and Lucknow.
 
Hazare, along with former police officer Kiran Bedi, ex-bureaucrat and Right to Information activist Arvind Kejriwal and Swami Agnivesh, will begin their three-day tour of India's most populous state on Friday.
 
However, a planned interaction with students and teachers of Lucknow University has been cancelled after the varsity withdrew its permission amidst fears that Hazare might use the platform for political purposes and on 'security concerns.'
 
Dinesh Kumar, president, Lucknow University Teachers Association, says that vice-chancellor M.K. Mishra decided to cancel the function as he felt it would attract a large crowd, leading to security concerns.
 
A nervous UP government, worried that Hazare and his team would put the spotlight on corruption within the administration, has also issued orders making the procedure for getting permission to stage rallies, processions and demonstrations more difficult.
 
Applicants wanting to hold demonstrations or rallies have to get several no-objection certificates from different authorities and also give an undertaking that they would bear the cost of damage to public or private property in case things go out of hand.
 
''The decision was taken in the larger interest of the people, who were often put to much inconvenience on account of road blocks, rail blockades and overcrowding of streets,'' said Fateh Bahadur, the state's principal home secretary. ''All, including political parties, would be held as much responsible for the loss or damage to property as any private individual or organisation.''
 
Bahadur claimed that the government did not want to curb the democratic rights of people to agitate and demonstrate. ''But we have to take the decision in the wake of an order of the country's apex court, that had laid down regulations to prevent disruption of normal life and even possible violence on such occasions,'' he added.
 
After addressing rallies in Varanasi and Sultanpur, Hazare would end the tour of UP with a rally along the banks of the Gomti river in Lucknow on 1 May.

According to a spokesman of India Against Corruption (IAC), which is organising the rallies in UP, the decision to start the nationwide campaign against corruption from the state was taken because it is the most-populous state in the country.
 
''Corruption cuts across all states and political parties, and our idea is not to target any single party but to take on corruption at its roots everywhere,'' said the spokesman.