Day-long anti-graft fast in India
Source: Agencies |
June 9, 2011, Thursday
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A VETERAN Indian social activist began a day-long fast against corruption yesterday and the government's violent crackdown against a similar peaceful protest, tapping into widespread anger at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's failure to curb graft.
Hundreds joined Anna Hazare's hunger strike in New Delhi, piling further pressure on the ruling Congress party, condemned for dispatching hundreds of police with batons and tear gas at midnight on Saturday to break up an anti-graft hunger strike by a yoga guru.
"When injustice and oppression prevail, it is not a crime to protest," Hazare told a cheering crowd that chanted his name. "We have to fight the second war for freedom," he added, referring to India's first struggle for independence from British colonial rule.
The septuagenarian Hazare, clad in white, began his fast on a stage at the memorial site of independence movement leader Mahatma Gandhi.
With riot police out in force, protesters clapped, sang, beat drums and waved the green, saffron and white national flag outside the gates of the memorial - a sunken garden with a large marble slab marking the place where Gandhi was cremated.
Many participants wore t-shirts emblazoned with the slogan "India Against Corruption."
"What happened on Saturday was a brutal assault on democracy. Beating innocent people, including children, and women, who were protesting peacefully," said Vikram Shetty, an administrator at large foreign IT company in Bangalore.
"I can't sit at home and wait for change. This is the beginning of change."
Protests on issues ranging from corruption to high food or fuel prices have mushroomed.
Anger over corruption has spiralled as the government lurches from scandal to scandal, including a telecoms licensing kickback scam that may have cost the exchequer up to US$39 billion.
Hazare has fasted for 108 days over the past 20 years for social change.
Hundreds joined Anna Hazare's hunger strike in New Delhi, piling further pressure on the ruling Congress party, condemned for dispatching hundreds of police with batons and tear gas at midnight on Saturday to break up an anti-graft hunger strike by a yoga guru.
"When injustice and oppression prevail, it is not a crime to protest," Hazare told a cheering crowd that chanted his name. "We have to fight the second war for freedom," he added, referring to India's first struggle for independence from British colonial rule.
The septuagenarian Hazare, clad in white, began his fast on a stage at the memorial site of independence movement leader Mahatma Gandhi.
With riot police out in force, protesters clapped, sang, beat drums and waved the green, saffron and white national flag outside the gates of the memorial - a sunken garden with a large marble slab marking the place where Gandhi was cremated.
Many participants wore t-shirts emblazoned with the slogan "India Against Corruption."
"What happened on Saturday was a brutal assault on democracy. Beating innocent people, including children, and women, who were protesting peacefully," said Vikram Shetty, an administrator at large foreign IT company in Bangalore.
"I can't sit at home and wait for change. This is the beginning of change."
Protests on issues ranging from corruption to high food or fuel prices have mushroomed.
Anger over corruption has spiralled as the government lurches from scandal to scandal, including a telecoms licensing kickback scam that may have cost the exchequer up to US$39 billion.
Hazare has fasted for 108 days over the past 20 years for social change.
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