Indian activist Anna Hazare, who galvanised the country last year with his hunger strikes against corruption, began a new fast Sunday to press demands for a crackdown on official graft.
Hazare and his supporters want parliament to strengthen a pending anti-corruption bill and the creation of a special team to probe possible graft allegations against 15 ministers, including prime minister Manmohan Singh.
The 75-year-old former army truck driver threatened to fast until death if the demands are not met.
‘I am confident that... the people of my country will not let me die. I draw my strength and confidence from you,’ Hazare told several thousand supporters gathered at a popular protest site in central New Delhi.
Some senior members of the Hazare campaign had already started hunger strikes at the same venue four days before.
Hazare became an unlikely national hero last August when he led countrywide protests that tapped into a rich seam of public anger at India’s endemic corruption.