Anna Hazare, India's leading anti-corruption campaigner, fasted in Tihar Jail on Wednesday after refusing a police release order, a stand-off that has sparked nationwide demonstrations and widespread derision at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government.
The government arrested 74-year-old Hazare and more than a thousand of his followers on Tuesday, just hours before he was due to begin a fast to the death to demand anti-corruption legislation. It then made a U-turn and ordered his release after thousands took to the streets.
But Hazare refused to leave the prison, insisting he wanted the right to return to the city park where he had originally planned to fast. The Congress party was due to hold an emergency meeting early on Wednesday to discuss the crisis.
The crackdown on a self-styled Gandhian activist met with outrage from the opposition, sparking parliament's adjournment and protests, from candle-light vigils to the burning of effigies of government figures, in cities across India
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