NEW DELHI — With his latest anti-corruption protest failing to ignite India's middle class, activist Anna Hazare ended a six-day hunger strike Friday with a glass of juice served to him by India's former army chief. His aide also announced that the group would enter politics. The 75-year-old former army truck driver had fasted since Sunday demanding that parliament pass stalled anti-graft legislation. He has demanded an investigation into his allegations of corruption against 15 Cabinet ministers. Hazare's aide and fellow hunger striker Arvind Kejriwal said they would form a political party and contest elections to fight India's endemic corruption. In the past Hazare and his supporters have mocked all politicians as corrupt. Three aides who have been fasting since July 25 also ended their hunger strike. “For the next one and half years, I will travel through the country and wake up the people of this nation,” Hazare told supporters minutes before ending his fast. He also said that while his supporters had his blessings to form a political party and contest elections, he would stay above the electoral fray. There were few details on the political party, and Kejriwal asked the crowds for their suggestions on a party name and how to pick electoral candidates of good moral character. He mocked both the Congress party that heads India's ruling coalition and Bharatiya Janata Party, the main opposition, and invited people to shun both parties in favor of Hazare's campaign. Congress spokesman Manish Tiwari said there were six or seven national parties in the country, 26 state parties and 1,139 smaller parties. “If they become the 1,140th, the more the merrier,” Tiwari said. He said Hazare and his colleagues had been forced to end their public fast because support for it had fizzled. “Obviously when you paint yourself in a corner you require a face saver,” he said of their decision to end the fast with the announcement of electoral plans. About four thousand people had gathered Friday at the New Delhi protest site where Hazare and his supporters have been camping. A year ago, tens of thousands had flocked to him, and hundreds of thousands across the country had showered him with support. — AP
