A Yoga Guru and a Gandhian social activist staged twin hunger strikes Wednesday to demand the government take immediate steps to fight an entrenched culture of corruption that has plagued India for decades.
Thousands of people have joined their protests by fasting in other cities.
The strategy has made for lively political theater, with near-nonstop TV coverage of yoga guru Baba Ramdev swaddled in orange robes and lying on a mattress surrounded by supporters as he forgoes food for a fifth day in his north Indian ashram.
But the hunger strikes have unnerved officials and some analysts, who question whether unelected officials should be able to manipulate policy with public stunts. The government agreed to Ramdev’s demands for action last week but was unable to stop his protest.
In the wake of movement, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday urged Cabinet ministers to declare their assets to improve government transparency, even as officials increasingly criticize the swami, with some saying his protest smacks of religious agitation by Hindu nationalist allies. Some of those Hindu hard-liners have shared the stage during his fast.
Tax investigators are also looking into Ramdev’s fortune, which is thought to total hundreds of millions of dollars in donations.
The government seemed to appear panicky as it tried both to accommodate and to dismiss the activists’ demands.
In the capital, hundreds of people joined 73-year-old rights activist Anna Hazare at a daylong fast at the main Gandhi memorial. Hazare planned the protest after Ramdev and thousands of his followers were crack downed from a New Delhi park in a Sunday raid that injured dozens and sparked even more public outrage.
Officials said they were forced to break up the protest after tens of thousands showed up, though only 5,000 had been approved. Police also said the event, billed as a mass yoga session, had taken on a combative tone with “provocative” speeches.
On Wednesday, Ramdev and Hazare both ramped up their rhetoric, with warnings of armed struggle and protesters dying of starvation.
Mean while Indian Home minister P Chadam Bram on Wednesday denied that union home ministry ordered police to crackdown the protesters adding that Delhi police decided itself to remove the protesters as it could be provoke the situation. He further said that the government has no objection on protests or hunger strikes but these should be peaceful.
Corruption row, hunger strikes and protests outbreak across India
