Indian police arrested an anti-corruption hunger-striker and detained 1,400 of his supporters on Tuesday in a crackdown that provoked outrage in the world’s biggest democracy.
Veteran campaigner Anna Hazare, 74, was taken to jail after plain-clothed police picked him up at an apartment in New Delhi on Tuesday morning shortly before he was due to start his “fast unto death” in a public park. About 1,400 people rallying in protest at Hazare’s arrest were held by police and taken to a sports stadium where a large crowd gathered outside, sparking a tense stand-off with officers.
Corruption has become a key issue of public discontent in India, and Hazare has emerged as a prominent national figure for his campaign to demand changes to a new anti-graft law currently before parliament. “Will this movement be stopped by my arrest? No, not at all. Do not let it happen,” Hazare said in a message on Tuesday morning predicting the day’s drama. “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. Thank you. Victory to Mother India!” he added. Home Minister P. Chidambaram denied the government was quashing dissent, saying protest organisers had refused to guarantee to obey police orders that the rally would be limited to 5,000 people and could only last three days. “This govt is not against peaceful protest,” he stressed. Further demonstrations erupted in Chennai, Hazare’s home state of Maharashtra and elsewhere after the frail devotee of Indian independence hero Mahatma Gandhi was taken to the capital’s Tihar jail.
