India's anti-graft activist agrees to end hunger strike

Reuters, NEW DELHI | Sat Aug 27, 2011

Veteran Indian social activist Anna Hazare holds a baton on the 12th day
 of his fast at Ramlila grounds in New Delhi August 27, 2011.
(Credit: Reuters/Parivartan Sharma)

(Reuters) - A self-styled Gandhian activist, whose campaign against corruption united millions of Indians, agreed Saturday to end his 12-day hunger strike after the government agreed to his demands for tougher laws against rampant graft.

Anna Hazare, 74, told tens of thousands of supporters in New Delhi Saturday evening, flanked by members of the ruling Congress party, that he would end his hunger strike Sunday morning.

Hazare's agitation has tapped a groundswell of public anger against endemic corruption, uniting the country's bulging middle-class against the hapless government and underlining voter anger at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

(Reporting by Annie Banerji; Editing by Paul de Bendern)