Police Battle Anti-Graft Protesters Outside PM's House, Hazare for Second Freedom Movement

New Delhi: Police used tear gas and water cannons as hundreds of anti-corruption activists led by Arvind Kejriwal staged noisy protests near Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi's homes. Congratulating the protesters, Anna Hazare said he felt the time "for complete change and a second freedom movement had begun".

Just 20 days after Hazare's Team Anna was disbanded, Kejriwal, a member of the former grouping, led hundreds of India Against Corruption (IAC) supporters to besiege the residences of Manmohan Singh, Gandhi and BJP president Nitin Gadkari. However, they were stopped by police and detained. Kejriwal was detained twice, once in the morning and a second time when he led the agitators again to besiege the prime minister and Congress president's house after noon.

Hazare, in a blog in the evening, congratulated the protesters and said he "felt that the time for change has come".

Hazare, who sat on four fasts in the national capital to demand a Jan Lokpal bill for creating an ombudsman to tackle corruption, said in the blog that it pained him to watch the youthful protesters getting cane-charged by police. But, he added "In order to succeed in the second war of freedom, one has to get used to beatings, and if it comes to that, then even face bullets. For complete change (in governance) the second freedom struggle has begun."