Indian anti-corruption activist on hunger strike
Anna Hazare
Rejecting an appeal by the office of the Indian prime minister, leading anticorruption crusader and social worker Anna Hazare yesterday launched an indefinite hunger strike to push for changes to a draft bill facilitating corruption complaints against the prime minister and cabinet.
Hazare, 72, began his fast at the landmark observatory, Jantar Mantar, in central Delhi after taking out a march from Rajghat where he paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at the memorial of the Father of the Nation.
"We will fast unto death until the government enacts the Jan Lokpal (citizens' ombudsman against anti-corruption) Bill which is most necessary to fight corruption in our country," Hazare told reporters here.
Social activists Swami Agnivesh, Kiran Bedi and Sandeep Pandey were also present on the occasion.
Hazare had yesterday said he was saddened when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh rejected the demand by leading civil society members to include them and senior ministers in the joint committee to draft the Jan Lokpal Bill.
Late last night, the prime minister's Office had issued an appeal to Hazare not to go on hunger strike.
PM Manmohan Singh's Congress government, re-elected in 2009, has become mired in graft allegations ranging from the cut-price sale of telecoms licences to corruption surrounding last year's Commonwealth Games and vote-buying.
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