The Patna police treated the agitated students on the streets of the State Capital here on Wednesday in a manner that seemed to be a copy of the Delhi police violence against the students demonstrating in Jantar Mantar on Monday.
Under the auspices of the All India Students' Association, the CPI-ML's student wing, demonstrators marched up to Lok Bhavan, formerly known as Raj Bhavan, calling for the resignation of Union Home Minister Amit Shah due to police brutality against students in Delhi and Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan due to the leak of NEET and other exam papers.
Sandeep Sourav, a CPI-ML MLA and former national general secretary of AISA, spearheaded the nonviolent demonstration.
But the Patna police halted the march close to the JP statue at Gandhi Maidan, claiming that "a march to the Lok Bhavan cannot be allowed because the designated area to protest was at Gardanibagh."
The police employed lathi-charge, water cannons, and tear gas shells to scatter the agitators after the police-students' "verbal duel" proved fruitless. Gandhi Maidan essentially became a battlefield when police officers with lathis pursued the escaping students, baton-charged them, grabbed them by the neck and collar, and loaded them into a police car.
"We have taken to the streets to make the Modi government realize that it cannot commit atrocities against the defenseless students." The CPI-ML MLA Sandeep Saurav declared, "We demand the resignation of both Amit Shah and Dharmendra Pradhan.
Echo in Bihar House RJD legislator Sunil Singh brought up the Patna police's lathi-charge at the Bihar House session. Other opposition figures joined him in denouncing police abuse, a claim that the allies of the ruling party refuted.
Congress march In the meantime, the BJP leaders fiercely opposed the Congress's protest march in Patna. The police's prompt action prevented the incident from getting out of hand.
Later, during a news conference at the party headquarters, Sadaquat Ashram, Congress leader Ragini Nayak stated, "Modi can address 'Pariksha pe charcha,' but when the agitating students take out a protest march against examination papers leak, he has no time to talk to the students." Rather, the students—including the girls—are brutally pummeled. PM Modi ought to remove Dharmendra Pradhan from his Cabinet first.
