CNLU students stage a candle light vigil in Patna on Thursday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Aug 18: After Anna Hazare’s supporters reigned on the streets for two days, it was the turn for the opponents today to find faults in his proposed Jan Lokpal Bill.

The opponents came out from a premier law institution — Chanakya National Law University (CNLU). The lawyers in the making gathered at the Kargil Chowk, which was under the siege of tiny tots, women and others hardly aware of what the Lokpal bill was all about, to enumerate the fault lines in Anna’s draft bill.

“Anna’s bill has several follies. His version of Lokpal Bill amounts to an attempt to change the basis tenets of the Constitution,” Nishikant Bibhu, a fourth year CNLU student, said objecting to the proposal of even bringing Prime Minister and higher judiciary in its ambit.

Supporting Bibhu, another CNLU student, Saurav Singh said: “Bringing the Prime Minister and higher judiciary in Lokpal’s ambit will lead to flooding of several unwarranted complaints against the high offices, hampering their work. The Prime Minister will be busy giving clarifications on the applications rather than doing the work he has been elected for.”

Another student, Parul Kumari, pointed out that bringing Prime Minister in the Lokpal’s purview would add to the burden of the exchequer because a separate section would have be created to deal with the applications and maintain the files.

While CNLU students opposed Anna’s version of Lokpal Bill, Leader of the Opposition in Bihar Assembly Abdul Bari Siddiqui wrote a letter to the social activist inviting him to Bihar.

“You should have begun your movement against corruption from Bihar, which has become a new cradle of corruption with the officers and ministers involved in the loot of public money,” Siddiqui’s letter read.

He also expressed his surprise over Anna’s reported statement in which he praised chief minister Nitish Kumar and asked others to emulate the Bihar chief minister.

“Perhaps, you (Anna) escaped the CAG report which ‘indicted’ the Nitish government for its irregularities with the advance contingency and disbursement contingency bills worth crores of rupees. You appear to have not taken notice of the irregularities in allotment of Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority plots,” the letter said, requesting Anna to make Bihar his “epicentre” of war against corruption.

The students, however, had a united voice against corruption, which they felt was the biggest issue bedevilling India. They organised a candle march to support the campaign against corruption.

Colleges closed

Students associated with Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad staged demon- stration in support of Hazare. They enforced the closure of the colleges in Patna University.