India activist on hunger strike to protest 'toothless' anti-corruption bill

Anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare began a three-day hunger strike in India's financial hub to protest a 'toothless' anti-corruption bill being debated in parliament on Tuesday, seeking to stoke public support for stronger legislation.    
Hazare, 74, channeled middle-class frustration with everyday graft and multi-billion dollar scandals in Asia's No. 3 economy this summer, forcing the government to agree to draft and pass anti-corruption legislation before the year ends.    

Parliament on Tuesday began debating the Lokpal bill, first proposed in 1968 to create a strong anti-corruption ombudsman. A vote is due later this week, but Hazare is not satisfied.    

"The government is cheating the people," he said as he started the hunger strike, adding that the bill as it stands would not weed out corruption. "One day the people will teach the government a lesson."    

Turnout was tiny on Tuesday compared to the crowds of tens of thousands that accompanied him during a two week-long fast in August. Hazare aide Vishwambhar Chaudhari admitted there was confusion over the purpose of the new hunger strike.    

"There is neither an agenda nor a key objective for this strike, hence it has failed to attract supporters," Chaudhari said from the vast but mostly-empty palm tree-fringed ground in balmy Mumbai, adding he hoped numbers would pick up.    

Hazare's protests set the political agenda in 2011, drawing attention to government graft and weakening Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is keen to put the corruption debate to bed quickly and focus on a string of state elections and economic reform in the New Year.    

But Singh may struggle to pass the bill in its present form since his coalition does not enjoy a majority in the upper house of parliament.

Reuters