[Hazare, a disciple of
Mahatma Gandhi, is the face of a nationwide social movement against rampant corruption
that has gathered pace this year after a string of high-profile
scandals. He has become a major thorn in the side of the government, which
is led by the Congress party, and the confrontation has become increasingly
bitter in recent weeks.]
By Simon Denyer and Rama Lakshmi
 |
| Anna Hazare, India’s leading anti-corruption activist, began a hunger strike as part of an effort to demand tougher anti-corruption laws in India.. |
NEW DELHI — Indian
police jailed a leading anti-corruption campaigner and detained thousands of
his supporters Tuesday morning, hours before the veteran activist was due to
begin an indefinite hunger strike to demand tougher laws against graft.
As public anger
mounted, the government made a dramatic U-turn and decided to release the
74-year-old Anna Hazare on Tuesday evening. But Hazare refused
to leave Delhi Delhi
Hazare, a disciple of
Mahatma Gandhi, is the face of a nationwide social movement against rampant corruption
that has gathered pace this year after a string of high-profile
scandals. He has become a major thorn in the side of the government, which
is led by the Congress party, and the confrontation has become increasingly
bitter in recent weeks.
Hazare, dressed in
homespun white cotton and a white cap, smiled and waved at supporters as he was
driven away Tuesday morning from his lodgings in the Indian capital in a police
vehicle after earlier being denied permission to stage his protest. Later,
hundreds of candle-holding, flag-waving protesters shouted slogans and pushed
against the iron gates of Tihar Jail demanding his immediate release.
“He will not come out
of prison unless the government gives him a written and unconditional
permission to fast in the park,” fellow activist Manish Sisodia told reporters
after being released from Tihar Jail, drawing cheers and applause from the
assembled crowd. “He is continuing his hunger strike inside the jail.”
Earlier, police said
1,400 protesters had been detained in Delhi
About 3,000 are still
being held at a sports stadium in eastern Delhi
The arrest of Hazare
and hundreds of his fellow activists has shifted the focus of the debate from
corruption to the right to protest in the world’s largest democracy. By late
afternoon, senior government officials were admitting privately that events had
been mishandled.
Political analyst
Kuldip Nayar said the government’s flip-flopping showed that it was panicking.
“They could not handle the public anger,” he said. “Today’s events will only
embolden the movement because people will now say, ‘Look, the government is a
paper tiger.’ ”
Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh, speaking in Parliament Wednesday morning as opposition lawmakers jeered,
accused Hazare of trying to circumvent democracy by demanding Parliament pass a
reform bill he supports.
“Those who believe that
their voice and their voice alone represents the will of 1.2 billion people
should reflect deeply on that position,” Singh said. “They must allow the
elected representatives of the people in Parliament to do the job that they
were elected for.”
Both houses of
Parliament had adjourned in chaos Tuesday, with neither government nor
opposition lawmakers allowed to speak over the din of jeers and catcalls
protesting the arrests. The chaotic scene continued Wednesday.
On Monday, Singh
weighed in on the debate in his annual Independence Day speech, saying his
government was committed to the “strictest possible” action against corrupt
officials but had no “magic wand” to end graft.
He said that only
Parliament should decide the shape of legislation, while opponents should
engage in debate but not “resort to hunger strikes and fasts unto death.”
The government said it
had been forced to detain Hazare and his supporters to maintain law and order
in the capital. But opposition leaders and activists said the mass detentions
were reminiscent of the days of the British rule over India
“The second freedom
struggle has started,” Hazare said in a video statement recorded before his arrest and
posted on YouTube. “The protests should not stop. The time has come for no jail
in the country to have a free space.”
The anti-corruption movement aims to energize the country’s
democracy against graft and has drawn considerable support from India
Activists are planning
another protest in Delhi
“The question before
the nation is this: Does this government believe in democracy?” said activist
and lawyer Prashant Bhushan. “They are disrespecting the core value of
democracy, which is the right of the people to protest on any issue anywhere.
“This government does
not look like a democratic government; it is looking a lot like the government
of the British Raj.”
Hazare’s tactics were a
direct throwback to those employed successfully by Mahatma Gandhi when India Britain
They committed Hazare
to seven days in judicial custody for refusing to sign an undertaking that he
would not continue his protest if he was freed. He was taken to Tihar Jail,
which houses a former government minister and other senior officials and
businessmen accused in recent corruption scandals.
“Protests are perfectly
permissible and welcome, but they must be undertaken under certain reasonable
conditions,” Home Minister P. Chidambaram said at a news conference. “Nowhere
in the world is a protest allowed without any conditions.” Chidambaram said
Hazare’s arrest was “not a pleasant task. … It is a painful duty.”
Hazare ended a four-day
hunger strike in April after the government included him in a committee to draw
up legislation to establish an independent ombudsman with powers to investigate
and prosecute corrupt officials.
But the two sides soon
fell out: The government’s draft legislation, introduced in Parliament this
month, was denounced by Hazare as a “cruel joke” because it excludes the prime
minister, the judiciary and most of the bureaucracy from the ombudsman’s
purview.
The government accuses
Hazare of resorting to blackmail and undermining the legislative authority of
Parliament by threatening a hunger strike.
It says he is intent on
creating a “Frankenstein’s monster,” a huge, unaccountable anti-corruption
agency with vast powers outside the checks and balances of constitutional
democracy. Although some social activists and legal experts share that
reservation, public opinion polls show that the vast majority of Indians
support Hazare’s campaign.
The government violently
disbanded another hunger strike against
corruption in central Delhi
