8/4/2019 ANTI-CORRUPTION PROTESTS IN INDIA

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Anti-corruption rotestsn India

I, the people

D E L H I

An anti-graft crusader steamrollsa haplessgovernment

C'tQUEICHING arefootn the sludge tJR-amlila tvtaidan, park n centraloilhi,a middle-agedman praiseshe people'slove for his guru,Anna Hazare.His eyesshine with zealand hunger.His Iegshavecramp rom fasting, or overaweek,besidehis 74-year-oldeader.Sowhat? We trainor.rr odies o gowithout food or 3odays,hesays. o ose lesh s togainenergy.

Mr Hazare, ho hashimself ost6kg,sproneon a platform nearby, ramedby ahugeposterof MahatmaGandhi,whosemethods ehasadopted. bankof televi-sion cameras ndadevotedcrowd, ensofthousands trong,watch him intently,dayand night, cheeringand chanting n a seaof mud.Groups f uniformedschoolboysmarch about, lourishing he Indian trico-lour. Youngmen sportwhite Gandhi capswith"I amAnna"penned nthe sides.

Trade s brisk n Hazarc osettes, ead-bands, -shirts,andbadges. ive upees ro

cents)gets hreeswipes of paint-saffron,white,green-onyour cheek.Evenpolicex-ray gateshave "corruption-free ndia"scrawledon them. Dozensof citieshavetheir own marches ndprotests. hecoun-

try's thicket of excitablecable-news et-works reportson nothing else.

Mr Hazare's ampaignhas urned himfrom a notedsocial eformernto a nation-alfigure. ehasdemandedthat,ytheendof the month, parliament passa bill histeam has written setting up an anti-graftombudsman, r Lokpal, o oversee very

part of government rom the servingprimeministerand Supreme ourtdown,holdingeverygovernment ody account-able or corruption ndpotentiallybecom-ing apowerfulnew arm of the state.

On Augustz4th,after alkswith Mr Ha-zare, he ruling CongressPartycalled anall-partymeetingat the primeminister'sresidence, hich agreedo resisthe activ-ist. A day earlier he prime minister,Man-mohanSingh, adbeen ebuffed fterbeg-gingMr Hazare o call off the fast or thesakeof his healthand a "shared"goalofwiping out conuption.

In the end the governmentmay havelittle option but to give n to thestreet rot-esters, ut asof August25th t was playingfor time. Althoughone ageing ut spiritedopposition eader, .K.Advani,hasurgedthe government o quit and call a freshelection, obodyelseseemed een.EvenMr Advani'sBharatiyaJanata artyquicklysaid t did not want earlypolls.

Quitehow Mr Singh's overnmentus-tifies ts keep,however, s growingharderto see. y urns t hasbeen neptand nde-cisive over this affair,while failing to get

anything else done either. Last week itbriefly jailed and tried to muzzleMr Ha-zare,which guaranteed im wide publici-ty and sympathy instead.That was fol-lowedby a daftclaim by Congresshat heAmericanswereegging n the protesters.Rahul Gandhi. who with three others ssupposedo run Congress hile hismoth-

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er, Sonia,getsmedicalcareabroad,hasbeendeafeningly ilent,absent rom Delhiandoffering o eadership.

Thosedismayedby both graftand poli-ticians'hopelessnessave elt ncreasinglyinclined to fall in behindMr Hazare.Prot-

estersmoved rom publicsquareso campoutside he Delhi homesof governmentministers and urs, unsettling the occu-pants.Oneprotester et ire o himselfonAugust23rd.

By mid-weekMr Hazare's upportersclaimed hey were within sight of a greattriumph. They brushed asidequestionsaboutparliamentarydemocracy eingun-derminedby a minority of street rotes-ters.A bunged-up ystemneededa jolt,

they retorted. A newly assertiveurbanmiddle class ooks ever readier o pushelectedeaders andunelected nes, ikeMr Singh) o act n their nterest.

Cooler heads,however, are wary. Tocraft a campaignagainst orruption nto amovementarounda single igure s faintlytroubling.Theclaim hat"Anna s ndia,In-dia s Anna"sounds loseo cult-speak.sit happens,he SupremeCourt, he auditor-general, panoplyof civil activists nda more assertive resshaveall heloed tohold the corrupt b accounthisyear.Sev-eralpowerful igures avebeenailed.

Other doubts exist about Mr Hazare.SomeMuslim eaders re uspicious f thenationalist,and what they seeas at timesHindu-dominated,one and imageryofhis campaign.Low-casteDalits, who ral-lied separatelyn Delhi on August z4th,

also questionhis stand.They fret that ifstreetprotesters an, n effect,make oneconstitutional hange, n attackmight fol-low on a treasured ut controversial on-stitutional provision reserving obs andmore or he owest astes.

Mostly sceptics ristleat Mr Hazare'smethods.The most reveredDalit leader, r