Anna Hazare threatens the government to resume his fast-unto-death if his demand for a strong Lokpal Bill is not me

NEW DELHI: Gandhian activist Anna Hazare said on Thursday that he was ready to face bullets to achieve the aim of a stronger Lokpal Bill. He was responding in Pune to comments made a day earlier by Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh, who said Hazare will be meted out the same treatment as Baba Ramdev.

"Anna is not afraid of death. They can fire bullets and not just use lathis to repress our agitation and the people of this country will decide whether India has a democratic rule or a dictatorship," said Hazare, who will resume his fast-unto-death on the day after the Independence day. Hazare's earlier fast in April successfully channelized the widespread disgust with corruption in India's public life, and forced the government to expedite a long-pending anti-graft legislation.

Singh clarified on Thursday that the media misquoted him and he never said Hazare would be handled using police force as in the case of Ramdev. Yoga Guru Ramdev, who attempted a similar protest in Delhi, was evicted from the capital in a midnight police operation that injusred scores of his supporters.

"I am surprised and pained at reports in today's newspapers which quoted me as saying that the treatment given to Ramdev would also be meted out to Anna Hazare," Singh said. Singh said that during his interaction with reporters in Jabalpur on Wednesday, what he said was that the Congress party had nothing to do with how the two were treated as it is always decided by the local administration after assessing the prevailing situation at that moment.

In an apparent dig at Hazare's coterie of activists, Singh suggested that instead of goading the 74-year-old activist to go on an indefinite hunger strike, his younger associates such as Arvind Kejriwal or Prashant Bhushan must go on a fast.

Hazare's fast and his associates' stubbornness in the subsequent negotiations had become a source of embarassment for the government, which was, by virtue of the circumstances, shown up as opposing an anti-graft legislation even when favouring a reasonable position on a number of matters. The frustration with this unlikely coalition with unconventional moral and political strength had permeated through the government and the Congress party as Hazare and associates mounted demands that were seen as extreme, such as death penalty as maximum punishment for graft.