As Anna Hazare contemplates another agitation beginning with a one-day fast on Dec 11 in Delhi, Mumbai gears up for a demonstration at Azad Maidan on the same day

It looks like Chalo Azad Maidan once again as Anna Hazare looks set to hold a token one-day protest at Delhi's Jantar Mantar. This, says Anna, is only a dress rehearsal for the real thing which would be a a fast in Delhi on December 27, to protest against the government's backtracking on the Lokpal Bill.


At last: Anna Hazare breaks his fast on the 13th day of his hunger
strike at the Ram Lila grounds in New Delhi, in August this year. PIC/AFP

The hotbed of yet another Annagitation would be in the Capital but Mumbai is going to be part of the action. The India Against Corruption (IAC) movement, the one-year-old mouthpiece of the Anna movement, IAC volunteer Praful Vora calls it the Team India, "not just Team Anna" movement, is confident that thousands of Mumbaikars would flood Azad Maidan on that Sunday, where they would protest the Govt's backtracking on its promises.

Vora says rather grandiosely that despite controversies, there is no giving up for this mammoth movement which Vora dubs as the, "second freedom struggle."u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0
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An interview with IAC's Praful Vora
Anna Hazare plans to mobilise a meeting at the Jantar Mantar grounds in New Delhi on December 11. Are there any similar plans in Mumbai? Also, has Hazare got permission for the same? There are conflicting reports about the permissions.

Intimations-permissions are under process for Jantar Mantar.u00a0 IAC always abides by the basic 'rules for common good' even though we offer 'satyagrah' against systems, which were designed by the English about 100 years back.u00a0 Yes, there are similar plans for Mumbai too.


City is stirred: Anna Hazare's India Against Corruption supporters
outside the BMC headquarters