Source / Courtesy BBC online
Indian PM: Anti-corruption protest ‘misconceived’
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has told parliament that the hunger strike by the anti-corruption activist, Anna Hazare, is “totally misconceived”.
He said the 74-year-old was trying to circumvent democracy by demanding the overhaul of an anti-corruption bill.
Mr Hazare spent the night inside Tihar jail in Delhi after rejecting an offer by the authorities to release him.
He has said he will remain there unless he can resume the public protest stopped by his arrest on Tuesday.
Protests backing his campaign have been gathering momentum across the country.
Thousands of people have gathered outside Tihar jail, many carrying the Indian flag and shouting “Down with corruption” and “Hail Mother India”.
Categories: India, Law, Law and Religion
(CNN) — Social activist Anna Hazare wears only khadi, a simple garb of homespun cotton, and lives in a small room off a temple in a remote, drought-prone western Indian village. A veteran of the 1965 India-Pakistan war, he retired from the Indian army and took vows of chastity and public service.
According to public statements in June, the septuagenarian bachelor has $1,500 in his bank account.
But ascetic social activist Anna Hazare has galvanized the nation of India, rattling the country’s leadership at the highest levels, as he garners support that cuts across economic and social divides.
His grassroots effort to fight corruption through public fasting has drawn comparisons to Mohandas Gandhi, whose non-violent efforts helped lead to India’s independence from British rule in 1947.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/08/18/india.hazare.corruption.strike/index.html?hpt=hp_c1