India against corruption: Anna Hazare aides vow to march to Parliament House tomorrow

NEW DELHI: Hours after the detention of Anna Hazare, his aides today vowed to take out a protest march to Parliament House from India Gate tomorrow in defiance of prohibitory orders clamped in the high-security area as part of a country-wide agitation against the police action.

"A protest march will also take place tomorrow from India Gate to Parliament House," lawyer Prashant Bhushan, a key member of Hazare's anti-graft campaign, told reporters here.

He said protests have been planned across the country to vent their anger "peacefully and in a non-violent" manner against the detention of Hazare and his supporters.

Alleging that the action against Hazare was taken at the behest of the central government, Bhushan said, "The decision to detain Hazare or to deny permission for his protest were taken by Cabinet Ministers. It is not the Delhi Police which is taking these decisions. There is no freedom for Delhi Police. It has become a puppet, an ornament in the hands of Central government."

He said students of Delhi University will protest outside Chhatrasal Stadium, which has been turned into a special jail, and court arrest while another protest will be organised at Pragati Maidan from where the activists will take a march to Jai Prakash Narain Park.

Prohibitory orders have already been imposed in the localities mentioned by Bhushan.

Taking exception to Hazare being picked up from a flat in Mayur Vihar, he said it was a "kind of detention under Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA)".