Anna Hazare ends hunger strike after Indian government backs down

Anti-corruption campaigner quits 12-day fast, vowing to resume if law tackling corruption and misgovernance is not introduced Anti-corruption campaigner Anna Hazare has ended his 12-day, nationally televised hunger strike in India with a glass of honeyed coconut water and a stern warning that he will resume his fast if an effective law is not instituted to deal with corruption and misgovernance. After forcing India’s parliament to pass an unprecedented resolution in support of his demands, Hazare told a huge crowd of supporters: “I haven’t given up the fast, I have only suspended it. My fast will really end when all our demands are met, when parliament passes the bill [to establish a nationwide ombudsman system] and there is genuine reform in the country.” Tens of thousands of Indians poured on to the streets to celebrate what is being hailed as a “people’s victory”. Prime minister Manmohan Singh’s beleaguered government, which seriously misjudged the support for Hazare’s anti-graft movement after it was launched in January, fielded law minister Salman Khurshid to try to make the best of a bad job. In a combative interview with the minister, TV host Karan Thapar accused Singh’s government of “looking like British imperialists and colonialists” in its treatment of Hazare. Thapar recalled how the 74-year-old crusader, known as much for his unimpeachable integrity as for his dogged pursuit of public causes, was accused himself of being corrupt by a Congress party spokesperson, and then thrown into Delhi’s notorious Tihar jail as he was about to begin his fast on 16 August. But a defiant Khurshid refused to accept any responsibility on behalf of the government. “We might have made errors of judgment, but errors are not mistakes,” he said. “Whatever we did, the consequences may not have been what we desired.” The government finally relented on Saturday, and in an historic gesture, parliament “agreed in principle” to three of Hazare’s key demands: that anti-corruption ombudsmen should be appointed in all regional states, and not just at the centre; that the entire bureaucracy should be covered by the new anti-corruption law, and not just senior officials; and that there should be a citizens’ charter for redressing public grievances against the administration. The government’s draft bill, already tabled in parliament, had ignored both the first and the third demands of anti-corruption campaigners, and had only partially agreed to the second demand. Though much discussion lies ahead in parliament before the bill is passed, Hazare has already forced Singh’s government to work toward devising an effective anti-corruption law. “Until today, Indians believed that corruption cannot be eradicated, that it’s a fact of nature, that it has entered our DNA,” said sociologist Dipankar Gupta. “But a beginning has been made. This will lessen corruption to a huge extent.” Anna Hazare Protest India corruption index Maseeh Rahman guardian.co.uk

Posted by on August 28, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.