Hazare said that there is no harm in holding discussions with the activist, whose hunger strike against paper leaks and student suicides entered its 21st day today.
Social Activist Anna Hazare, whose own hunger strike against the then UPA government in 2011 proved one of India’s most defining political movements, on Saturday urged the central government to hold discussions with climate activist Sonam Wangchuk after he was forcibly removed from Jantar Mantar.
Cautioning the government against testing Wangchuk’s limits, Hazare said that there is no harm in holding discussions with the activist, whose hunger strike against paper leaks and student suicides entered 21st day today.
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He said that the government give a straightforward response to Wangchuk his demands.
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Hazare’s reaction came hours after Delhi Police launched a crackdown on the Jantar Mantar protest, removed Wangchuk and shifted him to a hospital.
Wangchuk, who joined the Cockroach Janta Party-led protest on June 20, had been sitting on an indefinite hunger strike demanding Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation and overhaul of India’s education system.
However, his forceful removal from Jantar Mantar triggered a massive controversy with the Opposition Congress criticising the police action and accusing the BJP of denying democratic rights to citizens.
Terming the Delhi Police action “another black stain on democracy and Constitution”, Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge said the government considers anyone who raises their voice against it as “anti-national and a parasite.”
“In their eyes, anyone who raises their voice is an “Anti-National,” a “parasite”! What happened at Jantar Mantar today is yet another black stain on democracy and the Constitution,” Kharge said on X.
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, who had extended his support to Wangchuk’s protest, called his removal from the protest site “an utterly reprehensible development.”
The Samajwadi Party leader said that the BJP never believed in the ideology of the Mahatma Gandhi or his methods of non-violence.
“The BJP’s negative ideology is one of ‘conflict’; not dialogue. The BJP has become synonymous with despair. It’s not the BJP government–it’s arrogance!” he said.
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