GUWAHATI, Aug 19 � The Save Democracy Campaign Committee today started a 24-hour hunger strike in protest against corruption and extended its support to Gandhian Anna Hazare, who has been agitating for a strong Lokpal Bill to check corruption at high places in the country.
The agitators are staging the hunger strike at Ambari here.
In a statement, the Committee said that the Congress-led UPA Government was abetting large-scale corruption and protecting the culprits undermining mass opinion in the process.
�The UPA Government has buried democracy in its grave in the interest of a handful of ministers, politicians and the corporate. What is taking place in the country is nothing short of an authoritarian rule,� it said, adding that it was the so-called Lokpal as envisaged by the Government would amount to very little as it had effectively kept the Prime Minister and the judiciary outside its purview.
Meanwhile, the Assam Tribune Employees� Union (ATEU) has also extended its moral support to the hunger strike resorted to by Gandhian Anna Hazare at Ramleela Maidan in New Delhi today.
In a statement, the ATEU strongly criticized the recent arrest of Hazare, terming it as an attack on the fundamental democratic rights of the citizens. It said that the UPA Government was pushing the nation to grave danger by shielding those responsible for the unprecedented corruption taking place at the highest levels.
�We extend our solidarity to the nationwide awakening against corruption and appeal to all sections of people including peasants and workers and employees besides political parties and other organizations to put up a united stand against the scourge,� ATEU president Saifuddin Ahmed and general secretary Dugdharam Kalita said.
