Plea to end hunger strike
India’s Prime Minister has appealed to an anti-corruption activist to end his week-long hunger strike, offering to ask parliament to debate tougher new laws.
It was Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s first attempt to reach a compromise with Anna Hazare, whose fast has galvanised tens of thousands of corruption-weary Indians and left the government flailing, but there was no immediate reaction from Mr Hazare or his aides, who are demanding Parliament pass their more stringent version of a bill creating a government watchdog before his fast will end.
The 74-year-old activist – who styles himself after Mohandas ‘Mahatma’ Gandhi – has called his campaign a ‘second revolution’ and drawn comparisons to India’s fight for independence in 1947. Yesterday, he was examined by doctors after losing more than 12lb.