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25/08/2011 | India’s Prime Minister Asks Activist to End Hunger Strike

Jim Yardley

India’s Parliament met a major demand of protest leader Anna Hazare on Thursday by agreeing to consider his proposed anticorruption legislation, but it remained unclear whether Mr. Hazare would finally end a hunger strike that has spawned a nationwide popular movement and deeply shaken India’s government.

 

By late Thursday, Mr. Hazare, 74, still had not announced his intentions after completing the tenth day of his fast at Ramlila Maidan, a public ground in New Delhi. In a late afternoon address to his supporters, Mr. Hazare suggested that political leaders needed to do more than merely introduce his legislation. To break his fast, he said he wanted a resolution guaranteeing that certain key provisions would be passed.

Some Indian media outlets were predicting that Mr. Hazare’s fast could end as soon as Friday, once his legislation is introduced in parliament. Negotiations were still ongoing early Friday morning on language for a resolution that would convince Mr. Hazare to end his fast.

One of his advisers, Kiran Bedi, indicated that a lack of such a resolution could be a deal breaker. “Anna as I heard,” she wrote on Twitter, “will end his fast only if Resolutions on three issues are passed by Parliament.”

The lingering uncertainty came after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh delivered a dramatic, and at times highly personal, speech in Parliament that helped create a breakthrough. Mr. Singh, known for his probity, has seen his reputation take a beating in recent months as corruption scandals have beset his government. Criticism has intensified during the past week with the government’s mishandling of the Hazare situation.

But on Thursday, Mr. Singh seemed determined to take the offensive, both in his dealings with Mr. Hazare and in taking on his critics. He made a personal appeal to Mr. Hazare, asking him to end his hunger strike, and promised that the Hazare legislation would be introduced and debated in parliament, a new overture.

“I respect his idealism,” the prime minister said. “He has become an embodiment of our people’s disgust and concern about tackling corruption. I applaud him and salute him. His life is much too precious. I would urge Sri Anna Hazare to end his fast.”

Across India, hundreds of thousands of people have turned out at for rallies or marches for Mr. Hazare in what has become a swelling anticorruption movement. Mr. Hazare’s hunger strike is a pressure tactic intended to force the government to introduce and pass his legislation to create an independent anticorruption agency. His advisers have argued that a current government bill pending before a special parliamentary committee is far too weak.

Mr. Hazare’s popular support has seemingly increased in recent days but his impasse with the government has evolved into a confrontation over the supremacy of parliament in India’s democracy. His demand that parliament not only introduce but pass his bill — and do so by Aug. 30 — has been criticized by people across the political spectrum as disregarding the democratic processes of the country.

Mr. Singh rejected the Hazare team’s demand that only their legislation be considered, instead agreeing that it should be debated before Parliament along with other proposals put forward by other civil society leaders. He said this approach should satisfy Mr. Hazare while also maintaining the principle of the supremacy of Parliament.

“There is anger in the country,” Mr. Singh said. ‘There is anger about the misuse of public offices. It is our obligation to clean up the system of governance. I commit our government to doing exactly that.”

Opposition political leaders quickly fell in behind the prime minister.

“The prime minister’s appeal should become the appeal of the whole house,” said Sushma Swaraj, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., and leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha, or lower house Parliament.

On Thursday, Mr. Hazare reached his tenth day of fasting, having already lost more than 12 pounds and refusing the advice of his doctors to accept a glucose drip. At Ramlila Maidan, Mr. Hazare has spent much of his time resting or speaking to supporters on a platform festooned with a giant poster of Mahatma Gandhi, India’s founding father.

Concerns are mounting that Mr. Hazare’s health could begin to rapidly deteriorate, given the extended duration of his fast. Under Indian law, the police would have the right to forcibly take him to a hospital if his life was believed to be in danger, but authorities are acutely aware that such a step would almost certainly enrage Mr. Hazare’s supporters. Mr. Hazare has already asked his followers to peaceably block police from entering the grounds, if they try to take him to a hospital.

As yet, the demonstrations around India have been remarkably peaceful but some analysts worry that the situation could spin out of control if a breakthrough does not happen soon.

Meanwhile, Mr. Singh used his Thursday address to Parliament to offer a rare and stinging rebuke to the opposition politicians who have attacked him, even in personal terms, during this crisis. Drawing on his stature as the country’s leading elder statesman, Mr. Singh reminded his critics of his role in pushing the reforms that unshackled India’s economy two decades ago. India, he said, is now “respected all over the world because of the inherent strength of our economy, polity and democratic system.”

He also invited opposition leaders to examine his personal property, and that of his family, to see “if they find that I have used public office to amass wealth.”

He added: “I have a public life in the service of this country for 41 years,” the prime minister said. “Of these 41 years, twenty years in Parliament, I have tried to serve this country to the best of my ability.”

Hari Kumar and Nikhila Gill contributed reporting.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: August 25, 2011

An earlier version of this article misidentified the gender of an aide to Anna Hazare. The aide is a woman.

NY Times (Estados Unidos)

 


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