Support for Anna at IIM, IIT campus

BANGALORE: Young
people joined the
protest in their own
ways - some skipped
lunch, others joined
the crowd at Freedom Park and
Electronic City and
some even wore T-
shirts inside out. At IISc, many
students fasted in
support of Anna; 20
of them cycled to
Freedom Park from their campus and unfurled a banner
which had the signature of over 600
students supporting Anna's cause.
"About 200 students skipped lunch to
show their solidarity," said Pankaj Jain,
Integrated PhD student at IISc. Indian Institute of Management-
Bangalore students wore T-shirts
inside out. Mihir Mogre, who came up
with this idea, said "Any corrupt
system should be turned upside
down". Trilochan Shashtri, dean, academics, pledged to skip a meal
every day till the government agrees
to a strong Lokpal bill. Students from
IIM -Ahmedabad and IITs in
Gandhinagar, Guwahati and
Hyderabad set up an online petition supporting them. Engineering student from BNMIT
College Nikhil Bharadwaj said: "I'm
here because the authorities closed
the college as many students wanted
to take part in the protest. I want to be
part of the protest but I'm hungry and am searching for a restaurant. When
many students around him were
shouting 'Anna Hazare, Zindabad', he
shouted: 'Lokpal Saku, Oota Beku'.
Another college student Ankitha M
said: "I don't know much about the draft bill. It's a serious issue and want
to be a part of it." Students and teachers of Symbiosis
Institute of Media and Communication
were also present. "We think it's
important for students to be sensitised
to such issues," said Maya
Chakravarthy, director, SIMC.