India’s government said Saturday the nation’s democracy was at a “crossroads” as lawmakers debated ways to end a high-stakes standoff with a hugely popular anti-graft hunger striker.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, a top trouble-shooter for the ruling Congress party, renewed an appeal to 74-year-old Anna Hazare to call off his fast as doctors said the activist was weakening after 12 days without food.
The call was echoed by Bollywood star Aamir Khan who delighted Hazare supporters by turning up at the sprawling grounds where the activist was fasting in front of a giant picture of Indian independence hero Mahatma Gandhi. “I ask him to end his fast today,” Khan said, noting approval of anti-corruption legislation would take time. “I’m requesting this because this is a process in which parliament will debate and should debate,” Khan said.
By law, authorities could be obliged to move the anti-corruption crusader to hospital if doctors decide his health is in danger. Finance Minister Mukherjee insisted in a special session of parliament that the constitution must be upheld in drafting anti-graft legislation. “We are at the crossroads,” he told the usually hushed chamber which was meeting in an attempt to find way out of a crisis that has mobilised tens of thousands of protesters, including a lot of the middle class. “The functionality of the world’s largest democracy is at a crucial stage,” Mukherjee said. “Try to find a solution within the constitutional framework and without compromising the parliamentary supremacy.”
Critics fear Hazare’s demand for a strict new anti-graft bill that would create the post of an overarching national watchdog to monitor politicians and bureaucrats could undermine parliamentary democracy and create a “police raj”.
The giant groundswell of public support for Hazare’s campaign has startled the government, which was already on the defensive over multi-billion-dollar scandals that have implicated top officials and near double-digit inflation.
While all lawmakers stressed during the debate that strong action was needed to combat India’s “cancer of corruption,” they said any law must be in conformity with the constitution. “We should not compromise any tenets of the Indian constitution,” said Arun Jaitley, upper house leader of the main opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
However, another BJP leader Sushma Swaraj told India’s Times Now TV the party “will vote in favour” of any motion supporting Hazare’s three top demands that include bringing all government workers under an ombudsman’s authority.
