Prashant Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav held during protest

Ousted Aam Aadmi Party leaders Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav on Monday staged a protest outside the Delhi Assembly over the Janlokpal Bill, alleging that chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had “diluted” the anti-graft measure. They were detained along with their supporters.

“Those who claimed to be messiah of the Janlokpal movement are themselves killing it,” Mr Yadav said as he led the protesters who had gathered under the aegis of Swaraj Abhiyan ac-companied by Mr Bhushan and Anand Kumar.

DCP North Madhur Verma said, “Mr Yadav, Mr Bhushan and 150 protesters were detained and have been taken to the Maurice Nagar police station.” After getting released, Mr Yadav said that the protest on Monday was “symbolic start and the fight will continue.”

Mr Bhushan claimed that they were detained on orders of the Delhi Assembly Speaker who had directed the police that the protesters should not be allowed to march to the gate of the Assembly where the Janlokpal Bill was tabled by deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia.

On the Janlokpal bill, Mr Bhushan said the 2015 version of the draft bill was different compared to the 2014 season in several aspects and claimed that the 2015 bill gave politicians more say in appointment and removal of Lokpal.

“The bill has a provision of investigating Central government employees and the Centre will not allow this. Then Mr Kejriwal will play a victim card. The 2014 bill did not have the provision of investigating the Union government officials,” Mr Yadav said.

Referring to Mr Kejriwal hugging RJD chief Lalu Prasad during the oath-taking ceremony of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, Mr Yogendra Yadav said, “They (Kejriwal supporters) were saying nothing happens in shaking hands or hugging as it is political courtesy. Today, we see what happened due to that.”