Tyagis join Anna to turn ire on Lokpal Bill

CHENNAI: After fighting the British Raj, freedom fighters in the city have now trained their guns on corruption. On Thursday, they announced that they would go on a hunger strike from August 16 to fight graft.Addressing a press meet organised by India Against Corruption, Venkita Kalyannam, Mahatma Gandhi’s last personal assistant, who is now in his mid-eighties and Lakshmikanthan Bharathi (85), a freedom fighter-turned-bureaucrat, said the move was in solidarity with anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare’s nation-wide protest on the same day.A frail-looking Kalyannam blamed India’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, for turning a blind eye towards corruption.  “The British officials were not that corrupt and corruption came into prominence once India got freedom,” said the Gandhian.   “Now corruption starts from the day you are born and continues till death,” he said, adding that Hazare took up the cause when nobody had the guts to fight against the government.  Bharathi, who was part of the Quit India Movement in 1942, comes from a family where father, mother, son and daughter all spent time behind bars for the same struggle.  He compared the present anger against graft to the resentment against the British rule in 1945.  “This movement is a beginning to end corruption. We have to ensure that a powerful Lokpal Bill is passed,” said the senior citizen, a member of the Gandhi Makkal Iyakkam.  The freedom fighters informed that they have sought permission to protest at the SET college on K B Dasan Road, stating that it was not a political agitation.  “I will confirm it when we get the permission,” said Kalyannam.  Meanwhile, activists of India Against Corruption have planned to stage a rally on Saturday, starting from the Gandhi statue to the Labour statue on the Marina beach service road.  After the march, a petition will be submitted before the statue of Mahatma Gandhi - to mark the start of the struggle, said R Upendran, an IAC activist.  On Thursday, IAC activists burnt a copy of the Lokpal Bill near the Gandhi Statue, near the Marina to express their protest.