Indian PM Slams Anti-Graft Hunger Striker

Indian premier Manmohan Singh on Wednesday slammed the "totally misconceived" fast by an anti-graft activist whose arrest has sparked national protests and a high-stakes standoff with the government.

After a day and night of angry demonstrations in cities across India, thousands of supporters of anti-corruption campaigner Anna Hazare, 74, gathered outside Delhi's Tihar jail where he has been since his arrest Tuesday morning.

The growing crisis has piled pressure on Singh's government at a time of public outrage over a succession of high-profile corruption scandals involving some senior ministers.

In the face of the street protests, orders were given for Hazare's release on Tuesday evening, but he refused to leave without a guarantee that he could proceed with a planned "fast unto death" in one of Delhi's public parks.

"The path (Hazare) has chosen ... is totally misconceived and fraught with grave consequences for our parliamentary democracy," Singh said in an address to parliament that was interrupted by cries of "shame" from opposition benches.

The prime minister argued that Hazare's arrest had been justified by his refusal to accept police restrictions that included limiting his planned fast to three days.

The focus of Hazare's protest is a draft anti-corruption law, called the "Lokpal" bill, which would create a new ombudsman tasked with investigating and prosecuting senior politicians and bureaucrats.

Singh said using the tactic of an indefinite public fast to push for a stronger bill constituted a direct and unconstitutional challenge to the government's authority.

"The question is who drafts the law and who makes the law," Singh told a packed lower house, adding that legislation was the "sole prerogative" of parliament.

With corruption the focus of so much public discontent in India, Hazare has emerged as a prominent national figure for his campaign to strengthen the Lokpal bill.

Following a 98-hour hunger strike in April, he was allowed to help draft the legislation but rejected the final version because it excluded the prime minister and higher judiciary from the new ombudsman's scrutiny.

While acknowledging that Hazare's actions might be driven by "high ideals", Singh said his efforts to "impose" his own version of the bill on parliament were unacceptable and undemocratic.

Aswathi Muralidharan, a spokesman for Hazare's India Against Corruption movement, said Wednesday that the activist had refused food since his arrest.

"And he will not leave Tihar jail unless he is given permission to fast indefinitely," Muralidharan told Agence France Presse.

Around 4,000 supporters protested outside the jail, waving national flags and chanting slogans for a "corruption-free India".

In apparent anticipation of his arrest, Hazare had pre-recorded a message of defiance that clearly referenced his hero, independence icon Mahatma Gandhi, calling for a Gandhian campaign of civil disobedience.

"The second freedom struggle has begun," said the activist, who wears a Gandhi-style white cap and spectacles. "Time has come, my countrymen, when there should be no place left in jails in India."

Many observers believe the crackdown on Hazare and his supporters reflects concern that he may become a figurehead for a broader protest movement against Singh's government, which is also grappling with an economic slowdown and high inflation.

"The government painted itself into a corner by arresting him before anything happened," said Parsa Venkateshwar Rao, a political columnist for DNA newspaper and the author of a book on the new anti-corruption law.

"The government is now in a situation where it is damned if it refuses permission to Anna to fast and it is damned if it grants permission," he said.

Singh told parliament that more than 2,000 Hazare supporters had been detained in New Delhi on Tuesday but were released later the same day.