Patna: A heated argument broke out between protesting students in Bihar and political strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor in Patna on Sunday night. Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) aspirants, who were protesting at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan demanding a re-exam to be held for the 70th BPSC prelims. Protesting students alleged that Kishor left the site before police action against them.
The video of the heated exchange between the BPSC aspirants and Kishor also surfaced online. In the video, the poll strategist-turned-politician could be heard saying “abhi kambal mange ho humse aur humse hi netagiri dikha rhe ho (you take blankets from us and showing us attitude).
Here’s The Video:
The police lathi-charged and used water cannon to disperse the protesting BPSC aspirants. Notably, the protesters claimed irregularities in the 70th Combined Competitive Preliminary Examination and were demanding a re-examination to be held for the 70th BPSC prelims.
After the lathicharge, when Kishor and his supporters reached the protesting site, BPSC aspirants raised slogans of “Prashant Kishor, go back”, reported India Today. Protesting students questioned where was Kishor during the police action.
A case has been filed against poll strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor and around 600 other unknown protesters, including leaders of Kishor’s Jan Suraaj party. Kishor and others, who were booked, were reportedly accused of creating law and order problem by gathering and instigating people.
SP City Sweety Sahrawat said that the students pushed the police after which they used water cannon on them.
“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, and we are ready to listen to them…They also pushed us after which we used water cannon on them,” she said as reported by ANI.
The BPSC has announced a re-test for 12,000 affected candidates at one centre, but aspirants are demanding a complete reexamination. As the protest escalated, demonstrators breached two police barricades near JP roundabout and clashed with security personnel. Police responded with a baton charge and water cannons to disperse the crowd, leading to chaotic scenes in the state capital.
Prashant Kishor’s Reaction:
In a press conference on Monday, Kishordenied allegations of instigating students. He said that he had appealed to students to return to their homes before the police action. However, reaffirmed his support to protesting students.
“The Chief Secretary Amritlal Meena ji said that he is ready to meet the student delegation. We announced it there that 5 members of the delegations will go and meet the chief secretary. There was no big mic system so those who heard the announcement, I appealed to them to return back to their homes or Gandhi Maidan. I addressed several media outlets at Biscoman as well. We returned to Gandhi Maidan and sat there for long. Half of the crowd left the place. Around 1,000- 2,000 people stayed as they had different opinions and wanted to stay,” Kishor said.
“Some returned but some didn’t. Around 45 minutes later, I got the information that the police did lathicharge and used water cannons on those students. Police could have dispersed the students politely if they had wanted to. This is wrong… It has been informed that FIR has been registered against us. I want to tell you that now we will register FIR against the Police. We will go to court,” he added.
