Anti-Graft Activist’s Health is Improving

Posted August 29th, 2011 at 6:20 am (UTC-5)
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Doctors said Monday an Indian anti-graft activist is making a good recovery in a hospital after ending a 13-day hunger strike.

Seventy-four-year-old Anna Hazare ended his hunger strike Sunday after parliament agreed to some of his demands for tougher anti-corruption legislation. His fast united millions of Indians against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government.

Hazare's physician, Dr. Naresh Trehan, said Monday that the activist's progress is “satisfactory” and his condition has improved “30 percent.” Trehan said Hazare, who drank only water during his fast, would soon be put on a fruit diet.

Hazare ended his “fast to death” after the government agreed to discuss three of his demands that would lay the groundwork for a more robust anti-corruption law. But he said his struggle is not over, and he will not back down from his fight for reforms.

His supporters want an anti-graft body to have sweeping investigative powers over virtually every level of government, including the prime minister.

On Saturday, lawmakers held a special parliamentary session during which they backed a resolution by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to create an independent anti-corruption watchdog with wide-ranging power to investigate lawmakers, the judiciary and bureaucrats.

Popular outrage over corruption scandals has grown steadily in India in the past year.