Fasting Indian activist ready to give life for anti-graft bill

Dec 10, 2011, 8:40 GMT

New Delhi - Indian social activist Anna Hazare said Saturday that he was prepared to give his life for a strong anti-corruption bill as he prepared to undertake another protest fast in New Delhi, news reports said.

Hazare planned a one-day token fast Sunday in support of the bill.

'I will fight till the last breath,' the IANS news agency quoted Hazare as saying as he left his village in western India for New Delhi. 'If the government fails to enact the bill soon, I shall go on an indefinite hunger strike.'

Hazare fasted in August for 13 days, ending his protest after Parliament agreed to some of his demands on the bill. His hunger strike drew hundreds of thousands of supporters across the country.

Hazare has threatened to go on another indefinite fast from December 27 if the anti-graft bill with provisions recommended by his India Against Corruption group is not enacted.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government presented an anti-graft bill in Parliament in August, which was sent for revision to a panel of lawmakers after anti-graft activists criticized it as weak.

The panel submitted a new draft to parliament Wednesday, but Hazare said it was still inadequate because it did not include lower-level bureaucracy.

The bill envisages setting up an independent ombudsman to look into corruption charges against government officials. The legislation has been in the pipeline for 42 years.