NDA sit-in outside BJP office in protest against alleged lathicharge on Dalit students
Patna,(BiharTimes): To protest against the alleged lathicharge on a handful of Dalit students in Patna on Wednesday NDA leaders and workers staged a ‘maha-dharna’ outside the state BJP headquarters on Saturday.
The Dalit students were protesting against lowering of their scholarship amount on Wednesday when police reportedly used mild force to prevent them from entering Fraser Road near J P roundabout. The Patna high court has already imposed a ban on the entry of any procession in this area.
Leaders of all the four constituents of the NDA––BJP, LJP, RLSP and HAM––took part in it.
Talking to the media former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi sees a conspiracy hatched by chief minister Nitish Kumar, as he claimed, it was he who started the scholarship to the Dalit students. He said that it has been deducted from Rs 1.50 lakh per month to Rs 15,000 per month.
Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said the incident of lathicharge had exposed the anti-Dalit policy of the state government and demanded restoration of full scholarship.
He said the Dalit students, who were pursuing technical education outside the state, were the worst affected as the chief minister had reduced the scholarship in the garb of fake colleges. He sought action against officials involved in, what he called, the scholarship scam.
The NDA legislators were quite aggressive in both the Houses on the issue in the last two days––that is Wednesday and Thursday––of the Monsoon Session.
Political observers are of the view that the BJP, which is feeling cornered on the issue of atrocities on Dalits in various states ruled by it, especially Gujarat, is trying to distract the attention. But it met with little success so far attracting Dalit students is concerned, as they were not getting scholarship on time even when Manjhi was the chief minister.
