On the tenth day of Anna Hazare’s fast, the Lok Sabha today unanimously appealed to him to end his hunger strike as his life was “much too precious”, with the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, saying he has “registered his point” and that Jan Lokpal would be considered by Parliament.
Dr Singh hailed the Gandhian, saying he had become “an embodiment of the disgust and concern of the people over corruption” and that he respected him.
“I respect his idealism. I respect him as an individual...
I applaud him. I salute him. His life is much too precious and therefore I would urge Hazare to end his fast,” he said replying to a debate on corruption which was pressed for by the Opposition in the wake of Mr Hazare’s fast.
Dr Singh invited the House to issue a joint appeal to Mr Hazare to end his fast. Leader of the Opposition, Ms Sushma Swaraj, supported this following which Speaker, Ms Meira Kumar, spoke about the sentiments of the House with an appeal that he should end his fast.
With regard to Mr Hazare’s demand for passing his version of the Lokpal Bill by Parliament, Dr Singh said: “We will find effective ways and means to discuss the Jan Lokpal Bill, along with the government version of the Bill, Aruna Roy’s Bill and the paper presented by Jaiprakash Narayan.”
Contending that “all ideas will be discussed, debated so that we have the best possible Bill which will help us to deal with corruption, he said Parliament should discuss the “strong and weak points” of all the Bills which are in public domain and send the entire record for consideration of the Standing Committee.