ANNA Hazare, who has become a symbol of popular outrage over endemic corruption in India, left jail today to carry on his fast after the government caved in to huge protests across the country.
After three days in jail, the government has allowed Hazare to stage a 15-day hunger strike. The self-styled Gandhian and anti-graft campaigner, who had been arrested earlier in the week and then ordered released, had refused to leave jail until he was allowed to fast publicly.
Hazare’s exit was broadcast live across India as thousands of supporters thronged outside the jail in a deafening roar of celebration.
Just past the gates he addressed the crowd, raising his hand to the air and shouting “Victory to Mother India” before slowly winding his way in a truck decorated with flags through massive crowds.
Many supporters had been there overnight and some had offered prayers to Hindu gods. Others chanted “the whole country is Anna”.
A top Hazare aide said he would first go to a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi and later travel to open grounds in central Delhi, where supporters were making final preparations for his fast.
“We have not seen this kind of thing in the last 60 years in India,” said SK Sharma, 48, a company executive CEO, outside the jail as he waited for Hazare. “If this carries on in this way for the next four days, you will see a new changed India.”
A fumbling official response has seen the Congress party-led government face one of the most serious protest movements since the 1970s, just the latest setback for Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s second term that has paralysed policy making and economic reforms.
A medical team is on standby to monitor Hazare’s health as he began his hunger strike in jail and a sharp deterioration could further worsen the crisis for the government, although his supporters say it is not a fast-to-death.
In Mumbai, the city’s iconic lunch carriers, known as Dabbawallas, were reportedly set to go on strike in sympathy with Hazare.
The so-called Lokpal legislation was presented in early August, but activists slammed the draft version as toothless because the prime minister and judges were exempt from probes.
