Anna Hazare begins fast

Civil rights activist Anna Hazare and his supporters today began a day-long hunger strike at Rajghat to protest the police crackdown on Baba Ramdev's supporters during their agitation against corruption here on Saturday night.

After paying floral tributes at Mahatma Gandhi's samadhi, the Gandhian leader reached the protest site at around 10.20 am to a thunderous applause from around a thousand supporters who assembled there amid a large police presence.

Hazare chanted "Vande Mataram", "Bharat Mata ki Jai" and "Inqilab Zindabad", prompting the crowd to echo him. Civil society activists like Shanti Bhushan, Kiran Bedi, Swami Agnivesh and Arvind Kejriwal joined the protest.

Kejriwal said that except Justice Santosh Hegde, all civil society members of the Lokpal Bill drafting panel will join the fast, which has been organised to protest the midnight crackdown on Ramdev's supporters that injured over 60 people.

With Delhi Police refusing permission for the day-long hunger strike at Jantar Mantar, Hazare had decided to shift the venue to Rajghat to avoid a confrontation.

Bedi told the gathering that this is the "second war of independence against corruption, extortion and bribery."

"I called Anna 'Gandhi' yesterday. It made some people very angry but large number of the people very happy. Why we have to sit here today? We didn't raise our voices against corruption earlier so we landed up here. We are not against politicians. We approached them, but they did not take up the struggle, so Anna had to take up the fight," she said.

Earlier, before the protest started, Hazare said the government is trying to "scare" people off the protest. The organisers claimed action on Ramdev supporters has created a "fear psychosis" among the people.