Anna Hazare invokes the spirit of Gandhi as he is freed from jail

AN ACTIVIST who has adopted Gandhi's hunger-strike tactics and galvanized Indians' anger over government scandals led thousands of cheering supporters yesterday in a protest he branded a "new freedom struggle."

Anna Hazare's direct appeal to the government demanding that it pass his version of an anti-corruption bill has left prime minister Manmohan Singh's administration scrambling to respond.

Police briefly arrested the high-profile activist on Tuesday to stop his protest, then caved in and granted him permission for a 15-day public fast after he refused to leave the jail amid an outpouring of support for his cause.

Yesterday, he walked out of Tihar jail to wild shouts of "Long live Mother India" and a shower of rose petals. Hours later he rallied a crowd that braved the pouring rain at a fairground in the capital, where he planned to stay for the next two weeks.

"The youth of this country has awoken, so a great future for this country is not far off," he said. "The traitors who have robbed this country will no longer be tolerated."

The white-clad, 73-year-old activist, who has been fasting since Tuesday and says he has lost 6lbs 8oz, invoked Gandhi's legacy and and sought to cloak his demands for a tough anti-corruption law in the halo of the revered liberation leader.

"This is a new revolution. This is the new freedom struggle," he said from a stage, with an enormous portrait of Gandhi behind him. "We have lit the flame of a revolution. Don't let the flame die out now."

On his way to the protest, Mr Hazare stopped to pay his respects at the Raj Ghat memorial to Gandhi.

The protest movement has been breathlessly covered throughout the week by India's brutally competitive 24-hour news channels, which compared it to everything from the Arab spring to the fight against British colonial rule.

However, the crowds were only a tiny fraction of a recent street protest over food inflation, and political analyst Prem Shankar Jha said comparisons with India's independence movement were confusing "rhetoric for reality".

Nevertheless, Mr Hazare's message has found fertile ground in a middle class fed up with pervasive corruption and government scams alleged to have cost the country billions.

Government officials have criticized Mr Hazare, saying he was twisting time-honoured protest tactics to subvert the legislative process and force elected officials to bow to his agenda.