Indian Lawmaker Ends Hunger Strike Within Hours

An Indian lawmaker called off a hunger strike just hours into his protest Monday, prompting ridicule over what observers called the shortest fast on record.

Vinod Kumar Binny initially said he would refuse food for four days to protest his expulsion from the the Aam Aadmi (Common Man) Party which took control of Delhi's local government after state elections last month.

Binny began his protest after he had eaten his breakfast but by tea-time had announced an end to his fast on the advice of the veteran anti-corruption campaigner Anna Hazare, who has previously gone for nearly a fortnight without food.

The announcement immediately triggered ridicule on Twitter.

"Vinod Kumar Binny beats fastest end to hunger strike record," wrote Shiv Aroor, deputy editor of the Headlines Today news channel.

Fellow journalist Waseem Mushtaq tweeted that Binny deserved an award "for the fastest fast in the history of fasts".

Binny was one of 28 Aam Aadmi members who won seats in the Delhi assembly in December when the fledgling anti-corruption party made a dramatic breakthrough in its first ever election.

But he later fell out with party leader Arvind Kejriwal, who is now Delhi's chief minister, after he failed to be handed a ministerial post in the state government.

Hunger strikes have long been a staple of political protest in India, with 'father of the nation' Mahatma Gandhi frequently refusing food for long periods during British colonial rule.

A 12-day fast by Hazare in 2011 prompted the central government to meet his demand for an anti-corruption ombudsman.

But none can match the record of Irom Chanu Sharmila, a civil rights activist from Manipur who has been on a hunger strike for 14 years to demand the repeal of an internal security law.

She survives only because she is being force-fed through a tube attached to her nose.