Cardinal Gracias of Bombay calls for end to Hazare hunger strike

India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appealed to anti-corruption campaigner Anna Hazare to end his public hunger strike and proposed that parliament debate his demands after an apparent breakdown in talks with the activist.

His 10-day public fast that has drawn thousands of supporters to the capital, New Delhi, to call for stronger anti-corruption legislation.

The government has suffered several corruption-related scandals in recent months, and the economy has long been hampered by endemic graft.

The president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, the Archbishop of Bombay Cardinal Oswald Gracias, says that although the bishops support the fight against corruption, they want Mr. Hazare to end his hunger strike.

“I’m appealing, and the Church has appealed, to Anna Hazare to call of his hunger strike, because we know that only God is the giver of life; only God can take away life,” Cardinal Gracias told Vatican Radio. He also said Hazare has accomplished his main goal.

“I mentioned to Anna Hazare that you have succeeded in bringing corruption to centre stage, and making everybody realize, and also the government, that this matter has to be addressed urgently and seriously…but we also have the constitution to follow,” he said.

“Within these parameters we should work out a solution,” the Cardinal continued. “I have appealed to all parties –to the government, to Ann Hazare, and to civil society – to be flexible and to work to a solution that will be for the good of the people.”

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