Bangalore unites to fight corruption

Mtoday news

Bangalore, Dec 11:  While Karnataka has seen relentless uncovering of land scams and misappropriations by political figures, people’s outrage has been limited to letters, blogs and drawing room discussions. All that changed however when many organisations and students in Bangalore took to the streets with a unique protest campaign.

Zero rupee notes were distributed to passersby, which is a pledge against bribes and corruption.

It was ’Saaku’, which in Kannada means ’Enough’, on posters, badges and on people’s lips with some of India’s best known anti-corruption crusaders a part of the protest.

"What’s important is that the corrupt have to be sent to jail, and we don’t have any deterrence in our system. So we have drafted laws. Prashant Bhushan, myself, Kiran Bedi, we have drafted a Lok pal bill for the Centre. So we are challenging the Congress and the BJP. Let’s see who has the guts to pass this law?," said Arvind Kejriwal, Right to Information expert.

 

So what motivated people to come out in protest on a weekend?

"We don’t want Karnataka to become the Bihar of the past. Look at Bihar, look at what industrial growth and good governance can do," said Shalini Sampath, an Economics Lecturer.