Protest doubles up as fest

BANGALORE: Not everyone at Freedom Park knows what the protest is about. The fifth day of the protest in favour of a strong Jan Lokpal Bill turned into a college festival for students.A large number of students carrying banners and shouting slogans in support of Anna Hazare gathered at the venue, but they were not clear about the bill.“We know that the bill proposed by the government is toothless. We are not very familiar with it. But we would definitely take a day off in support of Anna Hazare,” some students of Christ Junior College said.On Saturday, the numbers were more with many more youngsters sporting painted faces and wearing stickers that read ‘I am Anna Hazare’ but whether they are aware of the provisions in the Lokpal bill and what the bill aspires to achieve, remains unclear.“I am disappointed with the crowd at Freedom Park. Not many knew what they are protesting for. Many students do not know what the Jan Lokpal Bill is about,” said Apurva Joshi, a working professional, who attended the protest at Freedom Park. Being familiar with some provisions of the Jan Lokpal bill, he interacted with students only to return from Freedom Park disappointed. The ice cream and ground nut vendors outside Freedom Park who said that the business for the past few days has been good.Stationed outside Freedom Park for the last few days, their largest customer base is students from various colleges in the city coming to protest in favour of Anna.Students were also spotted clicking pictures holding flags and banners. But the saving grace, however, was the fact that some others were found distributing pamphlets explaining the provisions of the  Jan Lokpal Bill to the people gathered.Prepared by India Against Corruption, the organisers of the protest, these pamphlets explain the general provisions of the bill, the necessity for it and a table differentiating between the government’s and the people’s point of view.Sumanth, a representative of drumaroo.com, an initiative to coordinate between the different groups protesting in favour of the bill in the city, was one of the few people who were given the responsibility of distributing the pamphlets at the venue.“Yes, we need to create more awareness about the bill and a lot of people coming here do know much about the bill or the importance of the Jan Lokpal Bill. The rest need to be informed,” he said.