Indian minister quits key anti-corruption post

Sharad Pawar

The indefinite hunger strike launched by India's leading social activist Anna Hazare against corruption in high places claimed its first casualty on Wednesday night as Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar resigned from a committee set up to combat graft.
Pawar quit the Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, saying he does not want to be "associated" with the panel anymore.
Pawar, the chief of Nationalist Congress Party, a key component of the country's Congress-led coalition government, said he has written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, informing him that he does not want to remain in the GoM.
However, Hazare said Pawar should resign as a minister also. “Our problem has not been resolved by Pawar resigning from the GoM. One Pawar goes, another will come,” he said.
The 72-year-old activist began his hunger strike at Jantar Mantar here on Tuesday demanding the government draft a new parliamentary bill which will give more powers to the Ombudsman to check corruption.
Meanwhile, support for Hazare, a known crusader against graft, swelled across the country with civil society activists holding sit-ins in several cities.
Nearly 200 people joined Hazare in fasting at Jantar Mantar on Wednesday and thousands of students, professionals and activists took out a candlelight procession at New Delhi's iconic landmark the India Gate.
Congress's insinuation that Hazare was protesting at the behest of the ruling party's opponents drew sharp rejoinder from Hazare.