Sunday Times 2
Indian activists led by Hazare to enter politics
View(s):NEW DELHI, Aug 4 (AFP) Indian anti-graft activists led by Anna Hazare said Friday they would start a new political movement aimed at winning seats in parliament for candidates committed to fighting corruption in public life.
The move ahead of a 2014 general election marks a new chapter in their bid to rid the country of the scourge of bribe-taking which mobilised hundreds of thousands last year nation-wide but has since fizzled out.
Aides to Hazare, a 75-year-old former army driver who models his appearance on independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, broke the news at the end of his six-day hunger strike to press his demand for a new powerful anti-corruption ombudsman.
“This is not a party. It will be a movement from the street to parliament. There will be no high command. People will decide the candidates and they will fund it,” fellow activist Arvind Kejriwal told a crowd of several thousand.
Hazare, whose movement goes under the name “India Against Corruption,” is surrounded by trusted lieutenants who are collectively known as “Team Anna” in the Indian media.
Hazare said he would not personally contest a seat, but would instead tour the nation.”I will travel through the whole country for one and a half years… I will awaken the whole population,” he told crowds of supporters.
India will go to the polls in 2014 for a general election with the ruling Congress party enfeebled after a string of corruption scandals and widespread criticism of its handling of the economy.
Hazare became an unlikely national hero last August when he led countrywide protests that tapped into a rich seam of public anger at corruption and caught Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s tainted coalition government unawares..
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