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By Megha Bahree in Mumbai and Vibhuti Agarwal in New Delhi

Megha Bahree/The Wall Street Journal
Supporters of Anna Hazare chanted slogans at the MMRDA grounds in Mumbai, Dec 28.

Doctors attending to self-styled Gandhian activist Anna Hazare at the MMRDA Grounds in Mumbai said Wednesday that if he continued his anticorruption fast he was in danger of kidney failure.
Doctors from J.J. Hospital and Jaslok Hospital said at noon that Mr. Hazare, 74 years old, is showing signs of dehydration, his heart sounds were “distant,” and he is running a higher-than-normal temperature of 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
The doctors said they “strongly advise to discontinue fasting” after Mr. Hazare stopped eating Tuesday on what is supposed to be a three-day fast to try to pressure the government into passing his version of an anticorruption bill. The doctors said his sodium and chlorides are low and that they were worried this may lead to kidney failure.

Megha Bahree/The Wall Street Journal
Pictured, supporters of Anna Hazare gathered at the MMRDA grounds in Mumbai, Dec 28.

Mr. Hazare has continued the fast Wednesday despite the lower house of Parliament’s passage late Tuesday of the government’s version of the bill, which will establish a national ombudsman’s office to investigate allegations of corruption in the bureaucracy and body politic.
On Tuesday, Mr. Hazare attracted a crowd of thousands to his fasting site. But after the Lok Sabha’s passage of the bill, attendance had dropped dramatically Wednesday morning. By noon there were about 500 people, much less than the roughly 4,000 who had gathered by the same time Tuesday as they awaited the arrival of Mr. Hazare and his team members.
While they waited Tuesday, the organizers kept up a steam of speeches and patriotic songs along with loud and energetic sloganeering. All of that is missing Wednesday, bar a few speeches which were just put on hold to switch to a video feed of goings-on in the Rajya Sabha, or upper house of Parliament, which will now consider the bill.
A vote in the Rajya Sabha is expected Thursday.
“The bill has to go through some procedural issues before it is brought in the Rajya Sabha for debate and vote,” K. Sudhakaran, joint director in the Rajya Sabha, told India Real Time Wednesday.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister P.K. Bansak, however, said the Lokpal Bill “can be taken up for consideration today but passed tomorrow.”
In the 245-member Rajya Sabha, the ruling Congress party and its allies have only 92 seats, falling short of a simple majority. That could make it difficult for the government to push through the bill in its present form.

Megha Bahree/The Wall Street Journal
Sunanda Praveen Gadhiya, right, and Mamta Dhar, left, prepared “I am Anna” badges at the MMRD grounds, Dec. 28.

The bill was passed in the Lok Sabha Tuesday around midnight by a voice vote since the government needed a simple majority. Another bill to grant constitutional status to the Lokpal failed as the government didn’t get the required two-thirds majority in the house.
Sonia Gandhi, the Congress party’s president, blamed the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party for the letdown on the constitutional bill.
“BJP had actually committed for constitutional status for the Lokpal Bill in the standing committee and yesterday the party voted against it and denied constitutional status,” Mrs. Gandhi said on television news channels Wednesday. “We have seen the real face of the BJP. We wanted to give a solid Lokpal Bill but they refused.”
Follow India Real Time on Twitter @indiarealtime.

Via: India Real Time