India Against Corruption - IAC

Andhra Pradesh, India
1st of Feb 2011

Citizens' burn copies of CVC Act, CBI Act and Govt's draft Lokpal Bill

Thousands pour onto streets in Indian cities against corruption

Citizens' demand Jan Lokpal Bill be enacted soon

Eminent personalities attend the march against corruption across India

Vote Bank Against Corruption launched, thousands registered on the first day

In what could be termed as the biggest outpouring against corruption by citizens, thousands turned up to march against corruption in more than 50 cities in India and some even in US. Copies of CVC Act, CBI Act and Government’s draft Lokpal Bill were torn by thousands of people all across the country giving a strong message that the people just do not have faith in all these weak and ineffective anti-corruption agencies. People demand that all these agencies should be either wound up or merged into proposed new Lokpal Bill. Waiving copies of these laws, the people then tore them off.

People were then explained the important features of the Jan Lokpal Bill drafted by people. The people then waived copies of the Jan Lokpal Bill, as drafted by the people and demanded that this Bill should be enacted by the government.

A campaign for creating of 'Vote Bank Against corruption' was also launched today. Just like parties create vote banks on religious lines and caste lines, we will create a vote bank of people against corruption. Vote bank will consist of people from all castes and religions. It will unite India. Those who wish to vote against corruption and want to pressurize parties to enact the Jan Lokpal Bill can either do so by pledging their vote on website www.indiaagainstcorruption.org or by sending a message at 09230534959. In order to be a part of the vote bank, one will have to take the following pledge:

'I pledge that I will not vote for the party which does not pass and support the Lokpal or Lokayukta Bill drafted by citizens, either in state or at the centre.'

Those who take this pledge can then register their vote against corruption by typing a message space and sending this message at

Thousands of people from across the country took the above pledge and cast their vote against corruption. This campaign will continue even after the rally. This campaign launched today will be taken all across the country and people will continue to vote against corruption and for demanding enactment of Jan Lokpal Bill.

The whole exercise would not have been possible without the blessings and active support of spiritual and social leaders from all religions like His Holiness Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Swami Ramdevji, Arch Bishop of Delhi Most Rev. Vincent M Concessao, Swami Agnivesh, Mahmood Madani, Maulana Syed Kalbe Rizvi, Anna Hazare, etc. The march in several cities today was attended by members of Art of Living, Bharat Swabhiman Trust, Jagrut Nagrik Manch, Jago Party, Lok Satta, YBI, Parivartan, ABYSA and many other religious, social and human rights organizations.

Cities where the march against corruption was held: Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune, Aurangabad, Kolkata, Pondicherry, Vishakhapatnam, Coimbatore, Trichy, Lucknow, Agra, Varanasi, Allahabad, Silchar (Assam), Chandigarh, Guwahati, Jaipur, Coimbatore, Barabanki, Patna, Bhagalpur, Jhansi, Gwalior, Jamshedpur, Rourkela, Aligarh, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, Surat, Raipur, Amroha, Bilari (Moradabad), Jaito, Faridkot, Bokaro, IIT-Kharagpur, Jalaun, Ambikapur, Surguja (CG) and many others.

Eminent personalities who joined the march:

Delhi: Maulana Masood Madani, Kiran Bedi, Medha Patkar, Swami Agnivesh, Sunita Godara, Ram Jethmalani, Harsh Mandar, Arvind Kejriwal, Shanti Bhushan, Prashant Bhushan, Archbishop of Delhi, Justice D. S. Tewatia, Devinder Sharma, PV Rajgopal, Trilok Sharma, Col. Sherawat

Chennai: N. Gopalaswami (Former CEC), Banu Kumar, Executive Director, 5th Pillar, Sai Praveen, Infosys, Devendra Oza, IAS (Retd.), Subramani, 5th Pillar, Mr. Mathur, DGP (Retd.), Deepa Rangarajan, ACA - Bombay Stock exchange, Louis Menezes, IAS (Retd.), B.S. Raghavan, IAS (Retd.)

Hyderabad: J. M. Lyngdoh (Former CEC), Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan (Lok Satta), Dr. K. S. Ratnakar (Director, Global Hospital), Raja Mouli (Telugu Film Director)

Pune: Vineeta Deshmukh (RTI Activist)

Mumbai: Julio Francis Ribeiro (Former IPS, civil servant and social activist) Y P Singh (Former IPS)

Photos and updates of March Against Corruption: http://indiaagainstcorruption.org/blog and http://facebook.com/indiacor

Contact: 09971900424, 09717460029