Veteran anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare has announced that he will be returning his Padma Bhushan award if the Centre’s Narendra Modi government did fulfill its promises.
“If this government does not fulfill its promises made to the country in the next few days, I will return my Padma Bhushan,” he told news agency PTI. The anti-corruption crusader, who’s been on an indefinite hunger strike demanding the appointments of Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in the states, said that Modi government had breached the faith of people.
“I will be returning my Padma Bhushan award to the President. I did not work for that award, you only gave me that while I was working for social cause & the country. If the country or society is in this condition, then why should I keep that?” news agency ANI quoted him as saying.
Hazare had said over the weekend that Prime Minister Modi will be held responsible if something happened to his health during the hunger strike. Today is the sixth day of his hunger strike.
Last month, an angry Hazare had said that if Lokpal was there, scam like Rafale would not have happened. “I have plenty of papers on Rafale and I will hold a separate press conference after studying it for two days. One thing I do not understand how a company formed a month ago before the deal was made partner in it,” he was quoted as saying.
Around 5,000 farmers from the district are likely to stage a protect outside the Ahmednagar collector’s office on Monday to support Mr Hazare’s agitation, his associates said.
On Sunday, renowned Manipuri filmmaker Aribam Syam Sharma too announced that he will return his Padma Shri award in protest against the Citizenship Amendment Bill. The 15-time National Award winner Sharma announced on Sunday that he will return the fourth highest civilian honour to register his protest against the contentious Bill.