The rival protests are part of growing showdown between Modi’s ruling nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) and the Congress party before national elections. Congress organised a five-hour hunger strike on Monday in a pre-emptive move against a BJP plan for a fast on Thursday. Congress faced sarcastic comments on Twitter, while the BJP called their protest a “joke”. Modi will fast to expose Congress’s “undemocratic style of functioning and pursuing divisive politics and [an] anti-development agenda”. In a 2012 blog, Modi called his annual fast an act of self-purification.

Source: The Guardian April 11, 2018 10:34 UTC