Kharagpur,August 23 :LENDING support to Anna Hazare’s campaign for a stronger Lokpal, a section of students at IIT- Kharagpur on Monday refused to accept degrees from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The PM was at the institute to address its 57th convocation programme.
While most of the protesters flaunted the Gandhi cap to express solidarity with the septuagenarian crusader, at least three MTech students — including a girl — boycotted the programme. Shouting slogans and carrying placards in support of Anna, the protesters staged a sit- in near the campus. “ I refused to receive my degree from the Prime Minister…. I can collect it later from the office. I think that right now, responding to the call of the nation is more important than receiving a mere degree from the PM,” Shashi Shankar Singh, an MTech student of structural engineering department, said.
Under the banner of ‘ India Against Corruption Campaign’, the 70- odd students demonstrated near the Kharagpur campus and hit the road in support of the antigraft movement. But when they tried to head into the campus, they were threatened with arrest. “ We could not receive permission from the IIT authorities to protest on the campus, so we chose this place,” Ritesh Singh, a third- year computer science BTech student, said.
Nearly 20 students have been on a hunger strike since August 18 and many more are scheduled to join them on a relay fast. The citizens of Kharagpur, who sat on the hunger strike with the students, have also formed the Kharagpur Citizens’ Forum to support the cause of Hazare.
ANNA BOOSTS VIVEKANANDA RAGE
BOOKS on Swami Vivekanada are flying off the shelves in Himachal Pradesh after Anna Hazare repeatedly referred to the philosophersaint as the guiding light of his life.
Hazare credits his personal “ rebirth” to reading the book, which made him realise Vivekanada’s message that “ that serving the poor means serving God”. He bought the book from the New Delhi Railway Station while he was facing severe depression and was contemplating suicide.
“ Everyone is asking for a book on Swami Vivekananda. Even the tourists are buying these books,” book seller Ashok Sharma of Ashok News Agency said. IANS
Internet frauds have made at least four fake Twitter accounts in the name of Arvind Kejriwal, a key associate of Anna Hazare.
Kejriwal announced at the Ramlila Maidan on Monday that he had no Twitter account.
“ I have no such account,” he said.
Two twitter accounts — iKejriwal and Arvind_ Kejriwal — are posting updates about the happenings at the Ramlila Maidan and bear the RTI activists’ photographs. The account iKejriwal has 609 followers while the account holder is following 19 persons, including Kiran Bedi.
PATRIOTISM AT INDIA DAY PARADE
SUPPORTERS of Anna Hazare’s Jan Lokpal Bill turned out in large numbers at the Madison Avenue in New York for the annual India Day parade to commemorate the 65th Independence Day.
Wearing the ‘ Anna cap’, the supporters waived banners and placards and shouted slogans of ‘ Remove corruption, save India’, ‘ Enact strong Lokpal Bill’, ‘ We want Jan Lokpal’, ‘ We are with you Anna Hazare’ and ‘ India is with you, the world is with you Anna’. PTI
Scores of women working in the capital’s red light area, G. B. Road, have extended support to Anna Hazare’s fast.
According to Bhartiya Patita Uddhar Sabha, sex workers have met Hazare’s team at Ramlila Maidan and vowed cooperation till all the demands raised by 73- year- old Gandhian are met.
“ The NGO supports the task undertaken by fasting Anna Hazare to get the Lokpal Bill passed in Parliament,” a statement by the NGO said. On August 20, a number of sex workers met Team Anna and pledged their full cooperation to them.
LIBYA ECHOES AT RAMLILA MAIDAN
THE announcement that Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi’s sons had been captured by rebel forces was greeted with a roar of approval on Monday at the Ramlila Maidan where Anna Hazare is fasting.
Hazare aide Swami Agnivesh declared to the thousands at the site that the sons had been seized and that Gaddafi’s end was not far away. IANS