SANTA CLARA (USA) -- A top strategist for India's burgeoning anti-corruption movement is touring the Silicon Valley this weekend to meet with supporters and explain his cause.
Lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan is one of the leaders of the populist Lokpal movement in India, which has been compared to everything from the tea party to the Arab Spring.
"This is a historic movement for India. It's very similar to Occupy Wall Street," said Unmesh Sheth, president of Palo Alto-based Indians for Collective Action, an advocacy group founded at UC Berkeley in 1968. "Everyone wants their voices to be heard."
Bhushan is an aide to Anna Hazare, a 73-year-old who camped out and fasted in public parks in April and August, galvanizing a movement that spread through social media. The activists -- known as Team Anna -- want the Indian government to form an independent anti-graft commission and to protect whistle-blowers.
Hazare was also supposed to visit the Bay Area this weekend, but stayed home to continue his work in India, Sheth said.
Bhushan will speak at a banquet that begins at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at the Santa Clara Convention Center. He will also speak at 10 a.m. Sunday at Stanford University's Cemex Auditorium.
On Monday, he meets with a small group of Indian-Americans in Palo Alto to discuss a "road map" for the movement. Along with having one of the largest Indian-American populations in the U.S., the Bay Area is important to Indian activists because of technological advances being invented here that are making it easier to track corruption and give a voice to India's poor, Sheth said.
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