Protest lands former finance minister Yashwant Sinha in jail - Times of Oman

Hazaribagh: A former federal finance minister of India's ruling party was jailed yesterday over accusations he led 300 protesters in storming an electricity office and tying up its manager to denounce blackouts.

Yashwant Sinha and 54 co-accused were remanded in custody for 14 days on assault charges by a court in eastern India after refusing to pay bail, reports said.

The protest comes as new Prime Minister Narendra Modi struggles to fix endemic electricity shortages that have hindered growth of Asia's third-largest economy by keeping factories idle.

Sinha, 76, also a former union foreign minister, grinned and flashed a "V" for victory sign to reporters as he was driven off to prison in a police van following his court appearance, television footage showed.

Sinha and over 300 members of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) staged a sit-in at the Jharkhand state electricity board in Hazaribagh on Monday and refused to let anyone enter, police alleged, according to the Press Trust of India.

'Humiliating experience'
Sinha, who previously represented the region in parliament, and dozens of fellow demonstrators were detained after some protesters allegedly tied up the electricity board general manager, said police superintendent Arvind Kumar Singh.

Sinha, who served in a previous BJP government from 1998-2004, told journalists he instructed female protesters to bind manager Dhanesh Jha with a rope, the news agency said.

"I asked them to tie the hands of the GM (general manager) as women are the worst sufferers for not getting power," the news agency quoted Sinha as saying.

"Their children's education is also suffering." During blackouts, women and children spend long hours at home in sweltering heat without fans. Without lights, children cannot study at night.

Jha, who filed a complaint with police, said protesters subjected him to a "humiliating and insulting" experience.

So-called "power-rage" protests about electricity shortages are relatively common. But this case was unusual because of Sinha's high profile and his senior status in the ruling party.

Plagued by blackouts
Mineral-rich but impoverished Jharkhand is plagued by blackouts with the government saying no generating power has been added since the state was created in 2000.

Parts of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, have been hit by 12-hour outages in recent days as summer temperatures have soared.

Two years ago, power was cut off to hundreds of millions of Indians in one of the world's worst blackouts when grids collapsed.

Gujarat state, where Modi was chief minister for over a dozen years before becoming premier, now boasts 24-hour power and electricity surpluses.

Modi has vowed to fast-track stalled power projects to link to the grid the approximately 40 per cent of Indians without power. But to run plants he must reduce fuel shortages that have left many existing facilities operating below capacity.

"Lack of fresh investment and modernisation are responsible for the grave power situation," said D. S. Rawat, secretary general of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India.