IISc students, faculty join the fast

The students, faculty members and non-teaching staff participated in the protest outside the Institute’s Faculty Hall. Nearly 500 students will go on a day-long voluntary hunger strike on Saturday.

“We have taken down the names of people who want to stage hunger strike and informed the mess to cook the food accordingly so that there is no wastage,” said Rishikesh Pandey, the student council chairman.

Pandey believed that if a 72-year-old person could take this initiative and fast for four days, it was their moral responsibility to show their support to Hazare’s crusade.

On Friday morning, a group of about 60 students had cycled from the IISc campus to the Freedom Park where the protest has been going on demanding passage of the Jan Lokpall Bill.

Though unaware of the difference between Jan Lokpal Bill and Lokpal Bill, Srikant Reddy, a master’s student, said he took part in the protest as he was against corruption. “The protest details were posted on notice boards of the mess and the broadcast mail so that everyone came to know of it,” he said.

M G Narayana, secretary, Tata Memorial Club, IISc, said that the students had 100 per cent support from the faculty on the issue. “The movement should have been done much earlier; our country would have prospered and become much developed,” he said.