Bangalore:
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.
Young activists, professionals and students came out with the slogan 'Saaku', which in Kannada means, 'Enough'. They distributed a zero rupee note to the passersby.
It was 'Saaku' on posters, badges and on people's lips with some of India's best known anti-corruption crusaders.
"What's important is that corrupt has 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 say who has the guts to pass this law?" said Arvind Kejriwal, Magsaysay awardee and RTI 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.