NEW DELHI: India’s Parliament Wednesday passed a law to create a powerful anti-graft watchdog following a mass anti-corruption movement that swept the country two years ago and galvanized politicians into action.

The ruling Congress and main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) showed rare unity in the lower house of Parliament to approve the bill creating a corruption ombudsman with sweeping powers to prosecute all politicians and civil servants.

“It is historic and landmark legislation,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared after the Lokpal or ombudsman bill was passed.

All ministers and senior public servants are covered by the bill, first proposed nearly five decades earlier, and even the prime minister falls under the scope of the law.

A stunning performance in state polls by an upstart party, whose mission is to clean up pervasive corruption and create a “bribe-free India,” underscored the potential damage the issue would cause major parties at the ballot box next year, giving them extra motivation to pass the bill.

The father of the anti-corruption campaign, 76-year-old social crusader Anna Hazare, drank coconut water to break a nine-day fast that he was staging to push for the bill in his home village in western Maharashtra state after the legislation was passed.

“This has been for the country... it has been a lot of work by a lot of people,” Hazare said.

Hazare, who styles himself after independence icon Mahatma Gandhi, declared he would form “watchdog bodies” made up of “retired judges, state police chiefs and other people with impeccable integrity” to keep a watch on how the law is enforced.