Indian graft campaigner leaves jail, begins fast
Source: Agencies |
August 20, 2011, Saturday
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INDIA'S most prominent anti-corruption crusader began a public hunger strike and mass protest yesterday, adopting the tactics of liberation hero Mohandas K. Gandhi to push for government reform.
Thousands of cheering supporters braved the rain to greet Anna Hazare as he arrived at the Ramlila fairground hours after he stepped out of a New Delhi jail to wild cheers of "Long Live Mother India" and a shower of rose petals.
"The youth of this country has awoken, so a great future for this country is not far off," he said at the fairground as he stood beneath a massive tent. "The traitors who have robbed this country will no longer be tolerated."
Hazare's standoff with authorities has galvanized the nation's anger at official corruption and put Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government on the defensive even as it fights off a raft of scandals.
The white-clad 73-year-old activist, who has been fasting since Tuesday and says he has lost 3 kilograms, repeatedly invoked Gandhi as he sought to cloak his demands for a tough anti-corruption law in the halo of the revered liberation leader.
"This is a new revolution. This is the new freedom struggle," he said from a stage, with an enormous portrait of Gandhi behind him. "We have lit the flame of a revolution. Don't let the flame die out now."
The crowd filled up only a small section of the fairground and police estimated the turnout at around 10,000.
Sympathy protests were organized across the country, with thousands marching in Mumbai, government employees in the state of Rajasthan holding a half-day strike and thousands of lawyers staying away from work in central India in a show of support.
Police briefly arrested Hazare on Tuesday after he declared his intention to hold a public hunger strike in defiance of their restrictions on the demonstration. He began his fast in jail anyway and then refused to leave when they tried to free him, demanding the right to hold a long public protest. A compromise was reached on Thursday that would allow him to hold a 15-day protest.
Yesterday morning, he stepped out of the jail's gate to the applause of supporters, who climbed atop parked cars to get a glance of the activist before he climbed into the back of a truck to lead a slow-moving procession through the city to the protest venue.
Hazare's protest is aimed at pushing the government to pass his version of a proposed bill to create a powerful ombudsman to police top officials. Activists have criticized the current bill tabled in Parliament as too weak to be effective.
Government officials have criticized Hazare in turn, saying he was twisting time-honored protest tactics to subvert the legislative process and force elected officials to bow to his own agenda.
Thousands of cheering supporters braved the rain to greet Anna Hazare as he arrived at the Ramlila fairground hours after he stepped out of a New Delhi jail to wild cheers of "Long Live Mother India" and a shower of rose petals.
"The youth of this country has awoken, so a great future for this country is not far off," he said at the fairground as he stood beneath a massive tent. "The traitors who have robbed this country will no longer be tolerated."
Hazare's standoff with authorities has galvanized the nation's anger at official corruption and put Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government on the defensive even as it fights off a raft of scandals.
The white-clad 73-year-old activist, who has been fasting since Tuesday and says he has lost 3 kilograms, repeatedly invoked Gandhi as he sought to cloak his demands for a tough anti-corruption law in the halo of the revered liberation leader.
"This is a new revolution. This is the new freedom struggle," he said from a stage, with an enormous portrait of Gandhi behind him. "We have lit the flame of a revolution. Don't let the flame die out now."
The crowd filled up only a small section of the fairground and police estimated the turnout at around 10,000.
Sympathy protests were organized across the country, with thousands marching in Mumbai, government employees in the state of Rajasthan holding a half-day strike and thousands of lawyers staying away from work in central India in a show of support.
Police briefly arrested Hazare on Tuesday after he declared his intention to hold a public hunger strike in defiance of their restrictions on the demonstration. He began his fast in jail anyway and then refused to leave when they tried to free him, demanding the right to hold a long public protest. A compromise was reached on Thursday that would allow him to hold a 15-day protest.
Yesterday morning, he stepped out of the jail's gate to the applause of supporters, who climbed atop parked cars to get a glance of the activist before he climbed into the back of a truck to lead a slow-moving procession through the city to the protest venue.
Hazare's protest is aimed at pushing the government to pass his version of a proposed bill to create a powerful ombudsman to police top officials. Activists have criticized the current bill tabled in Parliament as too weak to be effective.
Government officials have criticized Hazare in turn, saying he was twisting time-honored protest tactics to subvert the legislative process and force elected officials to bow to his own agenda.
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