NEW DELHI: Patna police use mild-lathi charge and water cannon to disperse the BPSC aspirants protesting in Gandhi Maidan, demanding a re-exam to be held for the 70th BPSC prelims.
The protesting students in Patna are demanding the cancellation of the Integrated Combined (Preliminary) Competitive Examination (CCE) 2024 conducted by the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) on December 13.
SP City Sweety Sahrawat said that the police have asked the protesting students to vacate the place as their representative is not there. She also claimed that they just used the water cannon but not the lathi charge however the video of police beating people.
“We requested the students protesting to vacate the place but they didn’t listen to us…We also said that they can put forward their demands, we are ready to listen to them…They also pushed us after which we used water cannon on them…” Se said.
Earlier, Prashant Kishore, who leads Jan Suraj, stood alongside BPSC aspirants during their demonstration.
Kishore criticised the Bihar administration for transforming democracy into “lathi-tantra” whilst defending the students’ fundamental right to demonstrate in public areas.
In his media interaction, Kishore stated, “We are not going for a protest. Students are sitting there, we are going to meet them. Gandhi Maidan is a public place, people go there every day. If the students do not have any place, they will go to a public place. I don’t know why the government has made it a question of its prestige, somewhere they are harming themselves.”
He continued by saying, “Bihar is the mother of democracy and if the students here do not have the right to speak their minds, then this is becoming a ‘lathi-tantra’… that’s why we are with the students.”