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India Corruption: Anna Hazare Accepts Release Offer
BBC NEWS, SOUTH ASIA
August 18, 2011: Jailed Indian anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare has agreed to a police offer which will permit him to go on hunger strike in a park for 15 days, his aide says. Writing on the social networking site Twitter, Kiran Bedi said Mr Hazare would begin his fast later on Thursday. The police had previously insisted the 74-year-old could fast for only three days. He was arrested hours after he was due to begin his "fast unto death" on Tuesday at Delhi's JP Park, along with at least 1,200 of his supporters.
Correspondents say the news of the deal was greeted with cheers by hundreds of his supporters who have been maintaining a vigil outside the police station in Delhi where he is being held.
He had previously vowed to remain in custody in Delhi unless he was permitted to resume the protest, which triggered his arrest on Tuesday. His detention sparked massive rallies.
Parliamentary jeers
Mr Hazare is to begin his fast at a public park at 15:00 (09:30 GMT) on Thursday, according to his aide. "Anna has accepted the DP (Delhi Police) permission for two weeks (of fast). Anna now shall be at the Ramlila Ground post 3pm," Ms Bedi tweeted from her official Twitter account. She said in a separate tweet the hunger strike would last 15 days.
Mr Hazare's protest is aimed against what he regards as a watered-down anti-corruption bill introduced by the Indian government.
The Congress-led government said the protesters had been detained because they had not accepted the police's restrictions on the number of fasting days and participants.
The move sparked widespread protests across the country, including Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Calcutta and elsewhere.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has accused Mr Hazare of trying to circumvent democracy by demanding the overhaul of an anti-corruption bill. Mr Singh told parliament Mr Hazare's hunger strike was "totally misconceived", but his speech was constantly interrupted by opposition MPs, many of whom jeered and shouted "shame".
The spontaneous outbreak of public support is a matter of deep concern for Mr Singh's administration, says the BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in the capital.
String of scandals
Indian Law Minister Salman Khurshid said the government respected the right to dissent, but told BBC World News that the rule of law also needed to be respected. "If the police accommodates his demands, he [Mr Hazare] can go and start fasting wherever that's possible," he said.
Mr Hazare has called the proposed anti-corruption legislation a "cruel joke" and has described the fight against corruption as the "second war of independence".
In April, he called off a hunger strike after four days when the government said he could help draft legislation to create a special ombudsman, or lokpal, an independent body with the power to investigate politicians and civil servants suspected of corruption.
The final version of the bill was presented in early August, but Mr Hazare and other activists rejected it because the prime minister and senior judges would be exempt from scrutiny.
India has recently been hit by a string of high-profile corruption scandals, which critics say is evidence of a pervasive culture of corruption in Mr Singh's administration. A recent survey said corruption in Asia's third largest economy had cost billions of dollars and threatened to derail growth.
