Big show of support for fasting crusader
Source: Agencies |
August 21, 2011, Sunday
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AT least 20,000 people gathered yesterday to support an anti-corruption social activist who has galvanized much of India against the government with his hunger strike, amid signs from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of compromise to end the impasse.
Anna Hazare, a 74-year-old self-styled Gandhian, lay on a stage on his fourth day of fasting at an open ground in the capital New Delhi, a hunger strike he says will continue until the government passes tougher anti-graft legislation.
The crowd, which police estimated to have climbed to 25,000 by the evening, included many middle-class office workers and students.
At the open grounds, people distributed food to a crowd that included many middle-class office workers and young students. "We believe we have got independence but we haven't. The same corruption, same loot, same terror is going on," Hazare told the crowd, adding that India needed electoral reforms as well as a new corruption bill.
Hazare left jail Friday, to huge cheering crowds and 24-hour media fanfare. He had been briefly arrested on Tuesday, but then refused to leave jail until he was allowed to continue public fast for 15 days. Hazare's campaign has struck a chord with millions of Indians, especially the expanding middle-class sick of endemic bribes, and has become a thorn in the side of Singh as his government battles corruption scandals.
There were signs the government, which has its own anti-corruption bill in parliament, was looking for a compromise in contrast to the hardline stance it took earlier in the week. Parliament published adverts in newspapers asking for public inputs over anti-graft legislation.
"We are open to discussion, dialogue," Singh told reporters yesterday. "There is a lot of scope for give and take."
Anna Hazare, a 74-year-old self-styled Gandhian, lay on a stage on his fourth day of fasting at an open ground in the capital New Delhi, a hunger strike he says will continue until the government passes tougher anti-graft legislation.
The crowd, which police estimated to have climbed to 25,000 by the evening, included many middle-class office workers and students.
At the open grounds, people distributed food to a crowd that included many middle-class office workers and young students. "We believe we have got independence but we haven't. The same corruption, same loot, same terror is going on," Hazare told the crowd, adding that India needed electoral reforms as well as a new corruption bill.
Hazare left jail Friday, to huge cheering crowds and 24-hour media fanfare. He had been briefly arrested on Tuesday, but then refused to leave jail until he was allowed to continue public fast for 15 days. Hazare's campaign has struck a chord with millions of Indians, especially the expanding middle-class sick of endemic bribes, and has become a thorn in the side of Singh as his government battles corruption scandals.
There were signs the government, which has its own anti-corruption bill in parliament, was looking for a compromise in contrast to the hardline stance it took earlier in the week. Parliament published adverts in newspapers asking for public inputs over anti-graft legislation.
"We are open to discussion, dialogue," Singh told reporters yesterday. "There is a lot of scope for give and take."
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