Anna Hazare announced that he will call off his four-day-old hunger strike Saturday morning, saying the government had conceded most of the demands related to a stringent Lokpal Bill to combat corruption in India.
More than 83 hours after he launched his fast in the heart of the capital, Anna Hazare told reporters and frenzied supporters: 'From the way the government has accepted (our demands), the people of India have won.'
10:30 pm: 'It is a victory of the democracy,' Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal said of the accord that had been reached on forming a joint committee of ministers and civil society leaders to draft an anti-graft legislation that had prompted social reformer Anna Hazare to announce that he would end Saturday morning his fast-unto-death undertaken for the measure.
9:00 pm: Anna Hazare announced that he was continuing with his fast demanding a stringent Lokpal Bill and said he expected a final government response on Saturday.
'Our fast is not over,' Anna Hazare said addressing thousands of frenzied supporters in the heart of the capital, amid speculation that the standoff with the government had ended.
8:15 pm: Indicating progress in talks with the government on the proposed formation of a committee for drafting the Lokpak Bill, the emissaries of Anna Hazare said he will soon announce his decision which people would be happy to hear.
"There is some progress in talks with government. Message is to be conveyed to Hazare," activist Arvind Kejriwal, who is one of the three emissaries, said after a meeting with Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, Law Minister Veerappa Moily and Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid.
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7:30 pm: India Inc came out with strong support for social activist Anna Hazare's fast-unto-death to demand a stringent anti-graft law.
'I think it is extremely important. We have talked about this for a while. First, you have said there is corruption in India and in many ways it seemed we had accepted it as a fact of life,' Sunil Munjal, chairman of Hero Corporate Services, told.
'But the amount and number of scandals which have broken out in recent times, it has made people sit up and take notice and say this is enough. We need to fix this problem, and so I see in many ways what we are seeing in this movement is a sign of the same thing,' he added.
7:00 pm: Anna Hazare demanded appointment of a chairman and a co-chairman for the proposed joint committee to draft an effective Lokpal Bill and rejected the government's offer of setting up of the committee by a letter of the Law Ministry.
Addressing his supporters, he said his anti-corruption movement has achieved considerable success and will not cow down before the government. "We have not accepted the government's offer of constitution of the committee through a letter from the Law Minister. There should be a government order on behalf of the government," he said.
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6:00 pm: The Anna Hazare-led movement is finding increasing resonance not merely among the citizens of this country, but also those living abroad. One instance: Saturday April 8, at noon, Indian Americans living in the tri-state area (New York, New Jersey and Connecticut) plan to rally in Times Square, the iconic center of Manhattan in New York, in support of Anna Hazare's demand for a corruption free polity.
5:55 pm: Amid the stalemate over Lokpal Bill, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stepped up efforts to resolve the issue as he held a second round of deliberations with senior ministers
.
5:30 pm: As Hazare's fast-unto-death on the Lokpal Bill issue continues, support for his movement is gaining momentum with people from all walks of life, including scientists, film stars and lawyers saying they have turned up here to send across a 'bigger message'.
For the majority of the people, the movement is not just about drafting of an effective Lokpal Bill, but it is about cautioning the government against ever increasing corruption and scams as a result of which India's imgae has taken a serious beating.
4:50 pm: As a formula designed to end Anna Hazare's fast, the government has offered this solution: a joint drafting committee will be set up with the brief to draw up strict anti-corruption laws, with adequate checks and balances. The ten member committee, to be convened by Law Minister Veerappa Moily, will comprise five ministers and five selected people from society at large, with one of the latter five to be Anna Hazare himself. The resulting bill will be introduced in the monsoon session of Parliament. "All points of substance (raised by Hazare) have been met," Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi told the media. "The Congress is with the crusade against corruption. We have shown that whenever there are credible allegations the Congress party has taken concrete actions and full transparency has been maintained. We are with the nation and with the civil society in this crusade against corruption."
More on the Lokpal Bill issue:
It is much bigger than Lokpal Bill, say protesters
Demonstrations held in support of Anna Hazare
PM briefs President on Lok Pal Bill stand-off
TDP chief Naidu backs Hazare's campaign, writes to PM
Participants of JP movement observe fast to support Hazare
4:15 pm: More reports coming in of protests and rallies around the country. The latest: in
Mumbai, citizens of the Juhu-Versova suburbs are getting together to organize a protest rally Saturday April 9 at 4 pm, from a point opposite Pratiksha, the home of cine superstar Amitabh Bachchan who had earlier in the day blogged his support for the Anna Hazare movement.
3:50 pm: A meeting is currently on at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's official residence, involving besides the PM, the likes of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Law Minister Veerappa Moily to examine the situation arising out of Anna Hazare's fast. While there is no official word on the agenda of the meeting and its possible outcome, word is that the meeting is intended to frame a proposal that will satisfy the activist and persuade him to end the fast that is rapidly capturing the attention, and imagination, of the nation.
3:45 pm: Any mass movement brings with it a share of oddities. And none so odd as Lalit Modi -- the IPL Commissioner 'Suspended' -- who tweeted his support for Anna Hazare, and followed it up with this dilly: "I too am a victim of Political corruption at the highest level.Only allegation for past year and not one charge-but they continue to crucify." Hmm... makes you wonder, does Anna Hazare know he is fighting for the emancipation of Lalit Modi?
3:30 pm: Even as the much-hyped Indian Premier League gets underway Friday, most people supporting social activist Anna Hazare in his fight against corruption said they would rather be at
Jantar Mantar than in front of a TV watching cricket. Anna vs IPL, where will you be?
3:15 pm: All checks, no balances? Those who have raised questions about the Anna Hazare-led revolution now ongoing predicate their arguments on one simple premise: It is necessary to root out corruption, yes -- but the Jan Lok Pal Bill as proposed is not the tool to do it with. That is a nuanced position, and in the shrill climate of the times, nuance is not necessarily welcome. Yet, the debate to be purposeful needs to look not merely at the problem of corruption, but the validity of the methods and tools chosen to fight it. And such a rigorous examination comes from Deepak Patel, who on
his blog dissects the bill and points to its fatal flaws. Here's the crux:
"The suggestion is that the Lokpal will be the guardian, the conscience-keeper of the nation. The Lokpal will be pure of heart and beyond all reproach. Who will choose him? Not, as in Scandinavia, the government, but retired judges and, as one draft suggested, recent international award winners. But Nobel prizes and Magsaysay awards are no guarantees of incorruptibility. The entire movement is predicated on a single faulty assumption: that there is no one in government, the executive, the bureaucracy and the judiciary who can be trusted. Therefore, what this model envisages is the creation of an extra-Constitutional fourth super-limb of government, one to which all other limbs are subject. What the model implies is dysfunction: no judge, no bureaucrat and no minister ever able to work without fear of some disgruntled citizen (of which we have no shortage) making a complaint. The PM and the CJI are subject to the Lokpal’s whip; and the Supreme Court is sought to be strait-jacketed in matters relating to the Lokpal. The so-called “people’s Bill” isn’t just disingenuous; it is downright batty."
3:00 pm: India Inc today extended support to social activist Anna Hazare in his fight against corruption, stating it is "sick" of the menace.
"We support any such movement by anybody, including Ramdev and Anna Hazare, to reduce corruption soon... We are sick of corruption," leading industrialist and Bajaj Auto chairman Rahul Bajaj said.
2:45 pm: From India Today, the story of the truck driver who became a freedom fighter and, today, finds himself the epicenter of a mass movement.
Read on
2:30 pm: Extending his support to noted social activist Anna Hazare''s fight against corruption, Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan said he will always back issues that "benefit the nation" and also called upon the media to commit themselves to the cause.
"I shall always be supportive of any issue which benefits the nation. I do not have to preach and shout out my allegiance towards my country from the roof top every day. My loyalty is not up for questioning and is not most certainly in a realm where it can be doubted," Bachchan wrote on his blog.
2:15 pm: Candlelight vigils in support of Anna Hazare are being planned in various cities across the country this evening. Thus far, rallies have been announced in
Cochin,
Chennai and Mumbai.
2:00 pm: PM briefs President about govt efforts to resolve Lokpal bill crisis
.
1:45 pm: Shri Ramkishan Yadav, more popularly known as 'Baba' Ramdev, has reached
Jantar Mantar in a show of solidarity with Anna Hazare. Ramdev, who started the Bharat Swabhiman Andolan to help eradicate corruption from Indian politics, told waiting media persons that the ongoing agitation fronted by Anna Hazare would continue until the roots of corruption have been removed from Indian society.
1:30 pm: By some strange trick of light, Anna Hazare's now-ongoing fast has been transmogrified into a fight against corruption. And that presents a strange dilemma for all of us. On the one hand, none -- at least, no right-thinking Indian with the good of this country at heart -- will put his hand up in support of corruption. However, what Hazare is fighting for is not an end to corruption, in and of itself, but for the immediate passage of the LokPal Bill. And that, says Yahoo's Suma Nagraj, is not the same thing at all. The battle against corruption involves us all; however, the wisdom of suggesting that a flawed bill is the means to that end is debatable.
Here is Suma's argument.
1:20 pm: The Indian Institute of Planning and Management has just announced that Anna Hazare will be the latest recipient of its Rabindranath Tagore Peace Prize, which carries a cash award of Rs 1 crore. The award will be handed over on May 9. Activist Irom Sharmila, known as the "Iron Lady of Manipur", was the 2010 recipient of the award. The IIPM has also gotten Anna Hazare's consent to the institution of 50 annual Anna Hazare fellowships of Rs. 4000/month per award, for those working in the realm of rural leadership.
1:15 pm: Below, find the text of the letter written by Anna Hazare to Sonia Gandhi, Congress President and UPA chairperson:
"Dear Mrs Sonia Gandhi,
I am really grateful to you for your concern for my health. I am also relieved to note that you fully support the cause and think that 'there is an urgent necessity of combating graft and corruption in public life' and that 'the law in these matters must be effective and deliver the desired results'.
I wish to bring to your notice that the sub-committee of your National Advisory Council (NAC) has agreed with the broad content of Jan Lokpal Bill, barring two issues, after extensive discussions on April 4th, 2011 with various knowledgeable sections of society.
May I request you to kindly get the draft discussed at full meeting of NAC at the earliest and recommend the outcome to the government.
I await your early reply.
Warm regards
KB Hazare"
Incidentally, the signature -- "KB Hazare" -- is indicative of the 71-year-old freedom fighter's real name: Kishan Bapat Baburao Hazare. "Anna" is a honorific.
1:10 pm: In an interesting aside, Slate magazine back in 2004
did an article on the mechanics of hunger strikes. A relevant clip:
"Perhaps more important, there are certain tactics that hunger strikers can use to prolong their protests—and their agony. The Irish republicans who fasted near
Belfast in 1981, including the famous Bobby Sands, supplemented their all-fluid diets with occasional spoonfuls of salt. If they hadn't, their bodies would have become too depleted of this essential nutrient, and their blood pressures would have become dangerously low at an early stage. (One of 10 prisoners who perished during the hunger strike, Sands lasted 66 days.)
The most innovative hunger strikers so far, however, have been Turkish Marxists protesting their country's shift from dormitory-style prisons to Western-style cells. Their fasts, which claimed an inmate's life this past February, are designed to keep the striker alive as long as possible; some of the strikers have lasted longer than 300 days. Their secret is to ingest salt, unrefined sugar, and vitamins, which limit weight loss to just a few ounces per day."
1:00 pm: As Anna Hazare's fast extends into the fourth day with no end in sight,
CNN-IBN asks a key question: how long can a human being survive without food? And, related, what does lack of food do to the human constitution?
"The extent to which a human body and survive without food varies from individual to individual. Mahatma Gandhi has gone without food for as long as 21 days. Freedom fighter Jatindra Nath Das died after a 63-day fast while imprisoned in Lahore. Frank Stagg, a jailed Irish Republican Army member, also couldn't survive a 62-day hunger strike.
Doctors believe that most humans can live for up to eight weeks without consuming food, but as long as they drink water. People with extra body fat and/or general physical fitness have a better chance of surviving longer durations. Metabolism also plays a role; people with slower metabolism have a better chance of going on longer. The body is also able to adjust its metabolism rate with the rate of change of food intake. Also important is the climate, both extreme heat and cold are not conducive for a fasting protester. The body has to burn more calories to keep itself at the right temperature. Will power is another important aspect. Someone with a strong will to survive will be able to hold up longer than someone who doesn't want to."
12:50 pm: For those who cannot be at
Jantar Mantar, here is a glimpse of the man in the middle of the emerging revolution:
12:45pm: Activist Medha Patkar has arrived at
Jantar Mantar for a meeting with Anna Hazare. She is the first of many prominent activists who are expected to arrive at the venue in course of the day .
12:30 pm: #Anna Hazare, #corruption, and #Jantar Mantar, are the top trending words and phrases on Twitter
India, thanks to dozens of tweets on this topic every minute.
Read the top tweets here
12:05 pm: With veteran social activist Anna Hazare continuing his fast-unto-death for a fourth day on Friday to push the government into introducing a tough new law to curb corruption among politicians and bureaucrats, Congress President Sonia Gandhi met the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, and discussed the Jan Lokpal Bill issue.
11:45 am: Attempts to break the impasse with anti-corruption crusaders failed again with the government rejecting two of their major demands - having a former Supreme Court judge as head of a committee for drafting an anti-graft law and on notifying the constitution of the panel.
Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said he had conveyed to Arvind Kejriwal and Swami Agnivesh, two civil society activists backing reformer Anna Hazare who has been on fast for the last four days, the government's disagreement over two of their important proposals.
11:30 am: Pranab Mukherjee appealed to Anna Hazare to end his hunger strike, which entered the fourth day, and join the informal committee to make an effective Lokpal Bill.
"I appeal to Anna Hazare to end the fast and participate in the informal committee," he told reporters on the sidelines of a CII event.
11:00 am: Coming out in support of social activist Anna Hazare's fight against corruption, Bollywood actor Anupam Kher said that corruption has to be fought in real life, just as injustice is fought in reel life.
'Just like we fight against injustice in reel life and there is victory of good over evil at the end, we have to fight against corruption and injustice in real life too. People's power should prevail,' Kher said.
10:30am: In a balanced post,
Gaurav Sabnis examines the case for and against Anna Hazare . While there is no doubting Hazare's personal integrity, no discounting the impact his previous trysts with public protest have wrought, a question still remains:
"Yes, his integrity and devotion is impeccable. His zeal for fighting corruption is more intense than any on-screen Bollywood vigilante's. But his tactic of fasting worries me. As a libertarian, I believe everyone has a right to do whatever they want with their body, and that includes fasting unto death. But the tactic is fraught with ethical issues.
It is "do as I say, or I will kill myself", so is fundamentally no different from someone standing on the ledge of a tall building and threatening to jump unless their demands are met. In Anna's hands, the weapon of fasting unto death has mostly been used for the right reasons. But do you know that nation-wide prohibition of alcohol is (or at least used to be until a few years back) one of his causes? If you like your occasional drink, how will you feel if his next fast is for prohibition?"
While a country-wide battle against corruption is long overdue, is Anna Hazare's fast the right vehicle for it,
asks Pratap Bhanu Mehta
"The morality of fasting unto death for a political cause in a constitutional democracy has always been a tricky issue. There is something deeply coercive about fasting unto death. When it is tied to an unparalleled moral eminence, as it is in the case of Anna Hazare, it amounts to blackmail. There may be circumstances, where the tyranny of government is so oppressive, or the moral cause at stake so vital that some such method of protest is called for. But in a functioning constitutional democracy, not having one’s preferred institutional solution to a problem accepted, does not constitute a sufficient reason for the exercise of such coercive moral power. This is not the place to debate when a fast-unto-death is appropriate. But B.R. Ambedkar was surely right, in one of his greatest speeches, to warn that recourse to such methods was opening up a democracy to the “grammar of anarchy”."
9:30 am: HRD Minister Kapil Sibal told TV channels a little after 9 am that there had been some confusion about the time of the meeting, and that the government was willing to concede all but two points raised by Hazare and the anti-corruption activists. Anna, meanwhile, announced that he would launch a jail bharo agitation from April 12 if citizens' demands were not met.
8:30 am: Early on Friday, social activist Swami Agnivesh said, "We are waiting for a communication from the government side. Yesterday, it was informally agreed that we would meet around 9 am. We have not got any formal communication".
Somehow, one just cause -- the need to fight corruption -- has become conflated with one imperfect solution: The Jan Lok Pal Bill.
The Acorn points to the fundamental flaw:
"If the Jan Lok Pal presides over the same system that has has corrupted civil servants, politicians, anti-corruption watchdogs, judges, media, civil society groups and ordinary citizens, why should we expect that the ombudsman will be incorruptible? Because the person is handpicked by unelected, unaccountable ‘civil society’ members? Those who propose that Nobel laureates (of Indian origin, not even of Indian citizenship) and Ramon Magsaysay Award winners should be among those who pick the Great Ombudsman of India—who is both policeman and judge—insult the hundreds of millions of ordinary Indian voters who regularly exercise their right to franchise. For they are demanding that the Scandinavian grandees in the Nobel Committee and the Filipino members of the Magsaysay foundation should have an indirect role in selecting an all-powerful Indian official. [See this post at Reality Check India]
The argument that people should be involved in drafting legislation is fine, even if it misses the point that the government is not a foreign entity but a representative of the people. It is entirely other thing to demand that the legislation drafted by an self-appointed, unaccountable and unrepresentative set of people be passed at the threat of blackmail. If we must have representatives of the people involved in lawmaking, we are better off if they are the elected ones, however flawed, as opposed to self-appointed ones, whatever prizes the latter might have won.
The Jan Lok Pal will become another logjammed, politicised and ultimately corrupt institution, for the passionate masses who demand new institutions have a poor record of protecting existing ones. Where were the holders of candles, wearers of Gandhi topis and hunger strikers when the offices of the Chief Election Commissioner, the Central Vigilance Commissioner and even the President of the Republic were handed out to persons with dubious credentials? If you didn’t come out to protest the perversion of these institutions why are you somehow more likely to turn up to protest when a dubious person is sought to be made the Jan Lok Pal?"
