By Yatindra Bhatnagar

In an unprecedented development, India's Parliament passed a unanimous resolution to express "the sense of the House" endorsing Anna Hazare's views to eradicate corruption in the government and public life that resulted in the Gandhian's ending his 12-day fast last week.

The move ended an ugly embarrassment faced by the Congress-led UPA government, a near-stalemate and possibly out-of-control situation. It did herald a people's victory when the Parliament acknowledged that the citizens of India are in a very angry mood and would not tolerate further dilly-dallying on the part of the government to come out to curb corruption in the country.

There is no concrete proposal about how to tackle corruption, investigate everyone accused of the charges and send the guilty to long period in jail. However, Anna Hazare's huge movement that was gaining wider support with each passing day had awakened the masses to a level not seen in the last four decades, at least since 1977 when the Janata wave under the leadership of Jaya Prakash Narayan toppled the Indira Gandhi regime.

Bowing to the unprecedented public support to Hazare and his widening appeal to various sections of the Indian public, both Houses of Parliament passed a resolution conveying "the sense of the House" on the much-awaited Lokpal Bill. That step paved the way for Anna to break his fast that was hailed all over the nation as a victory of the people against corruption.

At a session of Parliament held on Saturday - not a normal day for the Indian lawmakers to work in the Houses - the resolution was moved and passed. No voice vote was taken and though it is supposed to be a non-binding move, it has conveyed the "sense of the House" in support of what Anna has been demanding - a strong action to curb corruption.

There was some confusion over whether the resolution was passed by a voice vote or not. Apparently, no voice vote took place.

The lawmakers thumped the table signifying that they support and hail the resolution. First the resolution was passed by Lok Sabha; it was followed by Rajya Sabha. Soon after, Team Anna welcomed the passage of the resolution and one of the top Anna aides, former Police icon Kiran Bedi, expressed the Team's gratitude to the Parliament.

Some of the important points of the Lokpal resolution passed by Parliament are:

*An effective Lokpal at the Center and Lokayuktas in states be set up.

*Employees of central and state governments to be brought under purview of Lokpal and Lokayuktas respectively.

*All government departments to have citizen's charter with timeline.

The Times of India reported that last minute a fresh trouble had emerged after government decided only to convey sense of House to Team Anna and not put the resolution for voting. This made the activists to harden their position; they said it was a "betrayal" and only a resolution which will be put to vote in the House will be acceptable. This forced the government to change its stand. The resolution was then passed by a voice vote - though it was not formally put to vote but the lawmakers acclaimed it by thumping the tables and Speaker Meira Kumar declared that as passed.

Next day Anna Hazare ended his fast at the Ramlila Maidan where he was on his mission for the last 12 days, since August 16. He broke his fast before thousands of cheering supporters. Symbolically the glass of tender coconut water mixed with honey was given to him by a Dalit and a Muslim girl - two groups alleged to be ignored by the Hazare movement. The fast had continued for 288 hours.

Though the fast has ended Hazare's fight against corruption has taken up another cause - electoral reform. His idea for a recall, though logical, has immediately been dubbed as "impractical" considering the size of the electorate and the enormous additional cost involved. However, the spirit behind that idea, and the message underlining it have gone well with the people of India.

In a brief address Anna Hazare said that he had only suspended his agitation. He said amid thunderous applause: "I will not rest until all the changes that I look to are achieved. Flanked by his team members Shanti Bhushan, Prashant Bhushan, Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi, Manish Sisodia and others, Hazare said what has been achieved in Parliament yesterday is a victory of the people of India, democracy and those assembled at the Ramlila Ground.

Maintaining that People's Parliament is bigger than "Parliament in Delhi" Hazare said that is why the Parliament had to listen to people's Parliament.

"This movement has created a faith that the country can be rid of corruption and we can go ahead with implementing laws and the Constitution made by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar," he said.

Referring to Parliament's decision to refer three of his demands - Citizen's charter, inclusion of lower bureaucracy and creation of Lokayuktas through Lokpal bill - for Standing Committee's consideration, he said, the country can be proud of this moment. Thirteen days of agitation has yielded fruits, he said.

Outlining his future agenda, Hazare chose reforms in election and education systems and working for the betterment of farmers and laborers.

Kejriwal added: "We are thankful to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he showed remarkable leadership yesterday in the Parliament. We are also thankful to all the parliamentarians for listening to the voice of the common man. The entire country had poured out on the streets, their anger over a corrupt system was boiling over."

Minutes before Hazare broke his fast, August 28, Kejriwal said: "The backbone of the protest is our volunteers who were insulted, scolded, treated in a bad way but still they worked efficiently for hours. [There were at least 300 volunteers at all the time around the dais at the Maidan.]

From food, ambulance, security, crowd management, maintaining links with the media, and transcribing speeches -- the volunteers from India Against Corruption (IAC) were the lifeline behind the 74-year-old's fast that gripped the world's attention.

Around 4,000 people stayed overnight at the protest venue while hundreds of others arrived early in the morning when Anna broke his fast.