Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of New Delhi yesterday in support of a fasting anti-corruption activist involved in a high-stakes standoff with India’s graft-tainted government.
Veteran campaigner Anna Hazare, 74, brought huge, spontaneous crowds onto the streets within hours when he appealed from jail for a mass demonstration through the ceremonial heart of the Indian capital.
Other anti-graft protests were held in cities across the country, in a direct challenge to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who slammed Mr Hazare’s hunger strike as “totally misconceived” and undemocratic.
Mr Hazare’s protest, which is focused on what he sees as a watered-down anti-corruption law introduced in parliament, has attracted support from India’s middle-classes and constant media coverage.
He was arrested on Tuesday morning along with thousands of his supporters in a much-criticised police action as he prepared to start a “fast unto death” in a Delhi park.
As the street protests mounted, police ordered his release but he refused to leave Delhi’s notorious Tihar jail until the authorities met his demands to go ahead with his public hunger strike.
Aides say he has refused meals but has been drinking water.
“He will continue to sit in the jail unless he is allowed to fast unconditionally,” Prashant Bhushan, a lawyer backing Mr Hazare, told reporters.
The unprecedented nature of yesterday’s rally in Delhi piled pressure on Mr Singh’s government at a time of public outrage over a succession of multi-million-dollar scandals involving some senior ministers.
Organisers estimated the size of the crowd marching from the India Gate monument in central Delhi at more than 60,000. Independent witnesses put the number at between 20,000 and 30,000.
The Prime Minister earlier told Parliament that Mr Hazare’s arrest was justified by his refusal to accept police restrictions limiting his planned fast to three days.
“The path (Mr Hazare) has chosen... is totally misconceived and fraught with grave consequences for our parliamentary democracy,” Mr Singh said as he was repeatedly interrupted by cries of “shame” from opposition benches.
Mr Singh said using a public fast to try to shape the anti-corruption law constituted a direct challenge to the government.
“The question is who drafts the law and who makes the law,” Mr Singh told a packed lower house, adding that legislation was the “sole prerogative” of lawmakers.
With corruption the focus of so much public discontent in India, Mr Hazare has emerged as a prominent national figure through his campaign to strengthen the anti-graft Bill.
“For once we have brought the issue of corruption to every street of India,” said K.C. Malhotra, 68, a retired history professor who was among the protesters in Delhi.
“I am happy that Indians are united for a cause,” he said.
Following a 98-hour hunger strike in April, Mr Hazare was allowed to help draft the new legislation but he rejected the final version as too weak.
“The second freedom struggle has begun,” he said in a pre-recorded statement before his arrest that clearly referenced the civil disobedience campaign of his hero, independence icon Mahatma Gandhi.
“Time has come, my countrymen, when there should be no place left in jails in India,” said the activist, who wears a Gandhi-style white cap and spectacles.
Many observers believe Mr Hazare’s arrest reflected concern he was emerging as the focus point for a broader protest movement against Mr Singh’s government, which is also grappling with an economic slowdown and high inflation.