Team Anna has no option but to bribe Delhi Police, to let them protest peacefully

By
Adarsh Ladda
– August 11, 2011Posted in: The News Pages, The Political Drama

One of the most popular social activists these days, Anna Hazare has indeed found an innovative method to continue his war against graft. According to sources in the Civil Society (Team Anna), Anna was really afraid of going ahead with his plan of “fast-unto-death” against the system, keeping in mind the Delhi Police’s atrocities against Baba Ramdev and his peaceful supporters earlier this year. Since policemen are fast becoming free criminals, there is no other choice. Hazare has decided to offer some money “under the table” to the Delhi Police constables and its other officers. He has requested them “not to use their sticks” on his “peaceful protest march”. However, he is yet to make a formal request to the ailing Congress President, Sonia Gandhi for fixing up and mediating his meeting with Delhi Police officials.

The rift between the civil society members and the government is publicly visible, after the government put up its own wise version of Lokpal Bill as if the country was a bunch of fools. Anna recently addressed a press conference in Delhi, “The government is certainly not serious about the Bill as it has excluded the PM from its purview. This fast will shake this government inside out!”

Corruption Against Corruption: A Messed-up Life

The civil society’s prominent member, Kiran Bedi, who herself was a top-cop in the capital, has admitted the reality. “We all know that the Police in Delhi is very cooperative if you feed them with bribes. So, we have decided to keep them and ourselves happy while we protest against corruption on the streets of Delhi,” Bedi told mediapersons. She also said that she was concerned with the amount of the bribe to be given, “Fifty rupees was enough for officers in my time, but now, no one even talks without a 100- or 500- rupee note. This is also a matter of concern: Rising Inflation. I think we should highlight this problem also, in our protest”.

It is learnt that Team Anna will negotiate the amount of the “bribe” with the Delhi Police Commissioner B. K. Gupta along with his team of important DCPs, JCPs, and ACPs. They have also invited “pricing” experts like Suresh Kalmadi and A. Raja to be present at the meeting to fix up reasonable bribe rates. And in the consideration, Anna has been asked to pay some brokerage to both of them and to Sonia Gandhi for holding this meeting. But most importantly, NTMN has got a damning document (from our sources in the police), which looks like a list of rates for bribes, apparently issued by the police. It is learnt that the list will be presented to Anna Hazare and his team during the meeting, for “negotiating” the bribe rates.

Note: Contents of the list were written in typical Haryanvi (courtesy, Delhi Police), but we have specially converted it into English, for everyone to understand it:

RATE-LIST

S. No. Service Amount (in Rs.) Remarks
1. For giving traffic permission 50,000/- Amt. is charged per 2000 sq. mtrs. Covered
2. For not doing lathicharge 4500/- Per 5 persons*
3. For allowing media persons at site 2750/- Per Cameraman and Reporter
4. Gross ‘Cooperation Services’ Charge 1,50,000/- ***
*For the purpose of counting members at the protest march, Police will bring along a statistical expert with them  *** This Cooperating Service Charge is a one time payment. This will be valid for 1 year from the date of making Payment. i.e. You can hold any such protest/public march any no. of times up to 1 year, and no such charge will be levied on you again. (However, you are requested to preserve the receipt for verification purposes).

 

The Civil Society’s members have defended this move by Anna. Arvind Kejriwal said, “It doesn’t get worse than this. We have to use corruption against corruption, but then, we don’t have any other choice.”

Sources confirmed that the brokerage amount which will be paid to Sonia Gandhi and other UPA leaders mediating this meeting will be used to fund Rahul Gandhi’s dowry, since he is too old a child now to be married off for free.

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By Adarsh Ladda
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