Ranchi (Jharkhand) [India], August 11 (ANI): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday observed a statewide “Bandh” in Jharkhand protesting the alleged police brutality against student aspirants, a claim the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) has dismissed as “sheer desperation.”
The BJP’s call for a shutdown follows Monday’s massive protest by JPSC and JSSC aspirants in Ranchi, which ended with a night of alleged police brutality and a heavy lathi charge between students and security forces near the Legislative Assembly.
Lashing out at the BJP’s move, JMM leader Manoj Pandey denied reports of a lathi-charge or the use of extreme measures against the students.
“There was no lathi-charge. Only minimal force was used, strictly in self-defence, and there were no pellet guns or anything of that sort involved. This reaction stems from sheer desperation and unease. They are agitated because the police and administration handled the situation so effectively, and now they want to play politics,” Pandey told ANI.
The JMM leader further alleged that the opposition is attempting to hijack a student-led issue for political mileage.
“This is a students’ issue, and the students involved belong to all political parties. They are just barging in unnecessarily to grind their own political axes; let them make their announcements… I can state with confidence that it will be a total failure; no one is standing with them,” he remarked.
On the ground, however, BJP workers and leaders gathered at Harmu Chowk in Ranchi to protest against what they termed a “Black Day” for the state.
A BJP worker participating in the protests alleged that the state government had used house arrests to prevent leaders from supporting the students on Monday.
“Yesterday was a ‘Black Day.’ Today, the BJP has openly taken to the streets in protest. Yesterday, too, we set out to surround the CM’s residence for the sake of the students, while they were attempting to surround the Assembly; consequently, all our MLAs, representatives, and leaders were placed under house arrest at Hotwar until 8 PM,” he said.
“Today, fueled by the outrage over that incident, we are observing a vigorous shutdown; we will not allow any harm to come to the students,” he asserted.
However, a student from the protest earlier dismissed the ‘bandh’ as a political party’s own initiative.
“We don’t want to comment on what any political party is doing. If a party has called for a ‘Bandh’, it is their own initiative. We are students, and our movement is active here. We will not comment on political matters,” he told ANI.
This ‘bandh’ comes after Jharkhand Police on Monday used lathis and water cannons to control the crowd during the ‘Vidhan Sabha gherao’ march by Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) and Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC) aspirants in Ranchi over alleged irregularities in the JPSC and JSSC-Combined Graduate Level (CGL) examinations.
The protesting aspirants have been demanding cancellation of the JSSC-CGL examination, a CBI probe into alleged irregularities, and reforms in the recruitment process. They have alleged that their demands have not been fully accepted by the state government. (ANI)
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