Anna Hazare’s crusade against corruption has attracted a great deal of attention in the British media and among the NRI community which today welcomed the end of his fast.
British parliamentarian Lord Swraj Paul said he was relieved that the 74-year-old Gandhian has called off his 12-day-old fast after setting the agenda for the eradication of corruption in the country.
“Anna Hazare has awakened India as no one else to the evil of corruption and deserves full admiration,” he said.
The NRI industrialist said that he had watched with admiration the intense debate in the Indian Parliament yesterday which showed the strength of Indian democracy.
“The speeches of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and the leaders of Opposition Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley were of the highest calibre,” he said.
“All in all, the success of people’s power is a great milestone for Indian democracy. I hope the promises made in Parliament to deal with corruption are followed through,” Mr Paul said.
“Mr Hazare does not have, or aspire to, anything like Gandhi’s stature,” the Guardian said.
“He does not confront, as Gandhi did, his followers’ complicity in social evils, an aspect of his career underlined by subtitle — His Struggle With India — of a recent book on Gandhi. But Mr Hazare has found an issue — and is exerting a leverage which on balance must be good for India,” the paper wrote.
“A fast unto death is a touchy subject in India because of the memory of Mahatma Gandhi, who used the tactic against the British. One thing successive viceroys and prime ministers particularly feared was the popular uprising that would quickly follow if he died on their watch..,” leading author Mr Patrick French noted in his piece on Mr Hazare in the Daily Telegraph.
Mr Hazare has hundreds of supporters in Britain, many of whom took to the streets to voice their support to his crusade against corruption.