Indian anti-graft campaigner ends hunger strike

Aug 28, 2011, 5:00 GMT

New Delhi - Anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare ended his 13-day hunger strike Sunday after India's parliament accepted his demands for a tough anti-graft law.

Hazare, 74, broke his fast publicly amid thousands of his cheering supporters who waived national flags at the protest site at New Delhi's Ramlila grounds.

Hazare accepted coconut water mixed with honey offered by two girls under a large portrait of Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi.

'It is a victory for the people of India,' said Hazare, who is inspired by the non-violent civil disobedience example and led one of India's biggest anti-government protests in recent years.

'The campaign has generated confidence and belief that we will be able to build a corruption-free India,' he said to the crowd that chanted 'long live India' and sang patriotic songs.

Hazare and his supporters had rejected an anti-graft ombudsman bill introduced in parliament by the government as ineffective, and pushed their demands for a more powerful watchdog.

Hazare agreed to end the fast after the parliament Saturday night accepted three key features from his proposed legislation.

Those included an ombudsman for each state, a citizens' charter for each government department, and demand that the bill cover all government officials. A parliamentary panel was expected to draft revised legislation.

After some eight hours of special debate, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the 'broad sense of the house' was to accept Hazare's demands. But an expected vote on the proposals did not take place.

Hazare's team told local news outlets that they expected the bill to be passed by the parliament within a month. They also said the government was not averse to their key demand of bringing the Prime Minister under the purview of the ombudsman.

Hazare's campaign had drawn tens of thousands of Indians for protests against the backdrop of several corruption scandals implicating Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government, including a multibillion-dollar telecommunications licensing scandal.

Anti-graft legislation has been in the pipeline for decades. It has run into several drafts and has failed to gain approval in the upper house of parliament for 42 years.

'It's a proud moment for the country that the mass movement which was carried out for 13 days was completely peaceful and non-violent. It's become an example for the whole world to follow,' Hazare said while breaking his fast.

'The people's parliament is bigger than Delhi's parliament,' said the diminutive campaigner who lost 7.5 kilogrammes during his fast. Hazare was later taken to a hospital in Delhi's suburbs where he would be admitted for the next couple of days.

Indians gathered at public places across major cities Sunday to celebrate Hazare's dramatic campaign, his second successful agitation, after he went on a similar hunger-strike in April demanding that the government introduce the lokpal bill.

'It is a historic day...We came here to witness people power. This is the first time in independent India that a peaceful Gandhian protest forced the government to act,' said businessman Rajendra Dhulia among the hundreds at Bangalore's Freedom park, another protest site.

'The entire country had poured out on the streets, their anger against a corrupt system reaching its peak. We are thankful to the parliamentarians for listening to the voice of the common man,' Hazare aide Arvind Kejriwal said calling for celebrations at Delhi's India Gate monument Sunday evening.

Indian news channels and newspapers hailed Hazare's campaign, saying it marked a new chapter in India. 'Anna wins it for the people,' said the front page of Sunday Times newspaper. 'People's Democracy,' ran the headline in the Hindustan Times daily.

Hazare's campaign embarassed a beleaguered Singh government that is already on the back foot over its inability to tackle corruption.

Political analysts say government corruption could cost the Congress party dear as it could become an issue in polls slated in key Indian states next year, ahead of the 2014 national elections.

Corruption is rampant in India and pervades almost every aspect of daily life, from petty payoffs attached to basic services to graft at the top rungs of the government.

Despite six decades of independence and economic reforms launched in 1991, India remains highly corrupt - ranked 87th among 178 countries on Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index 2010.