Team Anna downgrading Parliament: Bal Thackeray

MUMBAI: Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray today accused Team Anna of trying to downgrade Parliament by putting pressure on it to get the Lokpal bill passed and insisted that the institution ought to be respected.

"To what extent will you go to downgrade Parliament, elected by the people. Are you not going to respect the integrity of this institution?" he wrote in the editorial of party mouthpiece 'Saamna'.

Acknowledging that the menace of corruption has seeped into the system, Thackeray, however, said it was wrong to "usurp the system".

He said people flock to anti-corruption rallies but when the time comes to cast their vote, they set aside the issue of corruption.

"This tendency of people was once again evident in the just-concluded municipal council polls in Maharashtra. People voted for money power. What do people in the anti-corruption movement have to say about this," he asked apparently referring to Congress-NCP victories in municipal council polls in the state, including Anna Hazare's native Ahmednagar.

Thackeray said existing laws in the country, if implemented strictly, are sufficient to nip corruption in the bud.

"More than a Lokpal, we need a hangman to execute Afzal Guru, convicted in Parliament attack case. Not honouring the verdict of the court regarding hanging of Afzal Guru is also a type of corruption," he said.