India's government calls cross-party meeting on corruption

India's government called today for political parties to reach consensus on drafting anti-corruption legislation, as an activist leading anti-corruption protests entered the second week of his hunger strike.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government scheduled an all-party meeting for tomorrow to discuss details of setting up an anti-corruption watchdog.

The move follows a week of protests drawing tens of thousands chanting support for activist Anna Hazare as he vows to fast indefinitely until politicians create an ombudsman with authority over the judiciary and prime minister's office. Hazare has offered his own draft bill, saying the government's version tabled this month in parliament is too weak.

The 73-year-old Hazare — styling himself after Indian freedom fighter Mohandas Gandhi — has called his campaign a "second revolution" and drawn comparisons to India's fight for independence in 1947 from its former British colonial rulers.

Since then, "several traitors have dragged our independence in the mud," Hazare said today to several thousand supporters below his concrete stage in a New Delhi park. "I'm sitting here to get this country its correct independence."

Today's crowd was a fraction of what that turned out over the weekend and yesterday, which was a holiday in India.

Hazare's aides said he is weaker after losing more than 12 pounds since beginning the fast on 16 August.

Hazare reassured his supporters that he faced no threat. "I trust my team of doctors. They will not let me die," he said. Authorities are required to intervene if Hazare's life is at risk, as suicide is illegal in India.

Some have criticised the hunger strike as undemocratic and verging on demagoguery, saying Hazare was falsely claiming to represent all of India.

Critics have also objected to Hazare's proposed version of the ombudsman bill as unconstitutional.

Representatives of India's lowest-caste dalits, or untouchables, planned their own protest against Hazare's proposal tomorrow, saying it offered little to protect the country's poor masses.

But Hazare's basic focus on rooting out corruption has struck a chord among Indians fed up with bribery and favouritism in all levels of government. Indian media have given non-stop coverage to his campaign, while supporters hold rallies in cities across India.

Meanwhile, parliament was forced to shut down its morning session amid shouting by politicians from the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party demanding Hazare's protest demands be discussed.

While both the opposition and governing party have been implicated in major scandals over the past year, opposition leader Sushma Swaraj blamed the government for the country's graft and said "ministers are looting" millions of rupees.

AP