Agencies/New Delhi


Anna Hazare gestures as he address his supporters on the ninth day of his hunger strike at Ramlila grounds in New Delhi yesterday
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his political rivals joined forces yesterday to appeal to social activist Anna Hazare to call off his anti-corruption hunger strike, now in its ninth day.
The appeal came after a meeting in which Singh sought the help of all political parties to end the standoff with 74-year-old Hazare, who is demanding a tough anti-corruption law.
But the activist refused amid persisting differences between his side and the government.
“We have unanimously appealed to Anna Hazare to end his fast,” Sitaram Yechury, a leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), told reporters after the all-party meeting in New Delhi.
The rare show of unity puts pressure on the activist and his team to make concessions over tough anti-corruption legislation, currently being debated in parliament.
With Hazare’s health failing and thousands of supporters packed into the muddy open Ramlila Maidan ground in New Delhi where he is staging his public fast, time was running out for the government to end the crisis.
“I’ve only lost six kilos and a bit of my kidney is affected, but it is nothing to worry about,” said Hazare, addressing his admirers in the Ramlila ground just outside the walled city of old Delhi.
“Until the government agrees to all conditions, I will not back down. Even if I have to die.”
The government has over the past 24-hours begun to offer concessions over tougher anti-corruption laws, but a deal has remained elusive.
Singh chaired a meeting of political parties at his residence to find an end to the impasse.
“There was no consensus (over anti-corruption laws) at the meeting. Leaders expressed their different view points,” Manohar Joshi, a leader of the Shiv Sena party, told reporters.
But he added: “There was a resolution passed at the meeting urging Anna to end his fast.”
While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the left asked the government to dump its own Lokpal bill that Hazare aides say is toothless, some other parties disagreed, indicating the crisis might drag on.
The activists have declared that Hazare would end his protest only after the government withdraws its Lokpal bill and instead presents their Jan Lokpal Bill to parliament for approval.
The Jan Lokpal Bill advocates the inclusion of the prime minister, the judiciary and the mass of lower bureaucracy in its ambit.
“Present the Jan Lokpal Bill in parliament tomorrow and Anna will end his fast,” his confidant Arvind Kejriwal thundered from the stage where Hazare is fasting, watched by tens of thousands at the Ramlila ground and across the country on television.
“If anything happens to Annaji, the government will be responsible,” he added ominously.
Singh has pleaded with Hazare to at least agree to go on an intravenous drip, which Hazare has so far refused.
He has remained lying or sitting on a public stage in the open for most of the day.
“Over the last few days, I have watched with increasing concern the state of your health,” Singh wrote in a letter to Hazare that was published by his office. “At worst, our paths and methodologies may differ, though I do believe that even those differences have been exaggerated.”
Hazare’s demand for more robust anti-graft laws has tapped into popular fury, particularly among the middle class, over the corruption that dogs the $1.6tn economy, bringing tens of thousands onto streets across the country in the biggest social protests since the 1970s.
Despite the throng of supporters at Ramlila, criticism of Hazare’s unyielding stand has mounted steadily, with prominent social activists, intellectuals and politicians calling on him and his movement to come to a compromise.
Hazare’s protests earlier this year prompted the government to introduce the Lokpal anti-graft bill in parliament in August, but he and his supporters have slammed the draft law as toothless.
Hazare’s movement wants the draft bill withdrawn and their own version the Jan Lokpal bil which would create an autonomous anti-corruption agency - to be passed by the end of this month, a demand senior government figures say is unrealistic. 
Hazare’s deteriorating health could force the government to decide on force-feeding him, a move that would risk sparking further protests against a fumbling government of elderly ministers widely seen as out of touch.