In April Manmohan Singh's government caved in to another hunger-striker, Anna Hazare, who extracted a big concession, winning forhis supporters a right to co-draft an anti-corruption bill.
Prior to the disaster his administration had been under political fire for the slow pace of government reconstruction after the February earthquake and tsunami along Chile's south and central coast, and forhis handling of a hunger strike by members of the Mapuche indigenous group of southern Chile, who are fighting for independence.