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NEW DELHI: An Indian anti-corruption activist refused to leave jail on Tuesday after having been held in custody for several hours to prevent him from starting a high-profile hunger strike in New Delhi.
Veteran campaigner Anna Hazare, 74, was released by authorities but said he would only walk out of prison if his demand to be allowed to hold a public “fast unto death” in a city park was met, officials told AFP.
About 1,400 Hazare supporters were set free after being held during the day inside a sports stadium in a police operation that was widely criticised as an attempt to quell dissent.
Mr Hazare has emerged as a prominent national figure for his campaign to demand that a new anti-graft law currently before parliament is strengthened.
“Will this movement be stopped by my arrest? No, not at all. Do not let it happen,” he said in a pre-recorded message on Tuesday morning, predicting the police action.
“This fight for change which has begun, we will take it forward on the path of non-violence as long as there is life in the body.
“The second freedom struggle has started... This is a fight for change,” he said in the message broadcast on YouTube. “The protests should not stop. The time has come for no jail in the country to have a free space.”
Home Minister P. Chidambaram denied the government was quashing opposition voices, saying protest organisers had refused to guarantee to obey police orders that the rally would be limited to 5,000 people and only last three days.
“This government is not against peaceful protest,” he stressed.
Further demonstrations erupted in Chennai, Mr Hazare’s home state of Maharashtra and elsewhere after the devotee of Indian independence hero Mahatma Gandhi was taken to the capital’s Tihar jail.
“We have issued his release warrant and it has been sent to the jail authorities,” Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said in the evening.
But officials said he was refusing to leave as wild celebrations erupted among his supporters outside the prison gates. Corruption has rocketed up the agenda in India after a series of scandals, notably a telecom licence scam that is thought to have cost the country up to $39 billion in lost revenue.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leads the opposition, accused the authorities of an “absolutely undemocratic” act in arresting Mr Hazare as protests in parliament forced business to be adjourned for the day.
“It’s a bizarre and thoughtless act on the part of the government,” party spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy said, describing the police’s approach as an “instigation to aggression”.
Observers believe the crackdown reflected concern Mr Hazare may become a figurehead for a broader protest movement.—AFP/Reuters
