Ranchi: Ishant Singh was getting his head wound dressed inside an ambulance at the Jharkhand student protest site when he spoke about the police lathicharge on Monday that had left at least three students injured.
“Hemant Soren, you said your police won’t lathi charge us,” said Singh, a student. “The lathi that was supposed to hit our legs but it left the head open.”
Another student, Rakesh, said the lathicharge began after a sudden commotion sent protesters running.
“Suddenly there was a commotion and people started running. When they ran, four-five policemen came after them and started lathicharging. A lathi hit a fellow protester on the head and split it open. We covered his head with a gamchha and brought him here,” he said. “The entire gamchha was soaked in blood.”
The students had begun their march from the Old Vidhan Sabha around 10 am and walked nearly 3 km before security forces stopped them about 1.5 km from the Assembly. Security forces had erected multiple layers of barricades along the route, deploying heavy police and security personnel, and setting up tear-gas arrangements.
After a marathon meeting Sunday with a students’ delegation in Ranchi, the Jharkhand government said it has agreed to “98 per cent” of their demands, including the possibility of an ED probe into the 14th JPSC Combined Civil Services Exam (CSE). It did not, however, agree to the demand for cancellation of the JSSC Combined Graduate Level (CGL) exam or a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in government recruitment exams.
The protests, then, continued. The confrontation unfolded as thousands of protesters remained on the road, chanting slogans and refusing to disperse. Police officials continued negotiations with the students, asking them to sit at the designated protest site and continue their agitation there rather than move towards the Assembly.
Vikram Kumar, a JPSC and JSSC aspirant from Hazaribagh, said he was not part of the group pushing ahead when he was hit.
“I was simply present at the protest. When the crowd started running, I was trying to move aside and that’s when the police hit me on the head,” Kumar said while getting his wound dressed in the ambulance.
Also Read: Barricades, lathis & a Shibu Soren photo. Students take protest to Jharkhand Assembly
A ‘mass movement’
A few metres away, one of the prominent faces of the agitation, student leader Devendra Nath Mahato, was at the protest site on a stretcher, with four people carrying him. Mahato, who has been on a hunger strike for nine days, said the use of force would not end the agitation.
“We have come very close to the Assembly. Students’ voices cannot be silenced through lathicharge. Whenever a government gets scared, it puts the police, batons, guns and bullets at the front. Has the government become afraid?” Mahato said.
He said the government can “simply talk to us” and fulfill demands.
“Lathicharge reflects the government’s cowardice,” he said.
Mahato later said the protest had now grown beyond a student demonstration and become a “mass movement”.
“You can see the pain of students in this Vidhan Sabha march. Even after nine days of my hunger strike, I came here in an ambulance and joined this march on a stretcher. But this government is crushing our voice and using water cannons and tear gas shells. This is condemnable,” he said.
Mahto says the march will go on despite three rounds of discussions.
“If students’ demands are not met, the CM’s post will be under threat. The government will be shaken. This agitation is not going to stop,” he said. “This has become a mass movement.”
Dumri MLA Jairam Kumar Mahato appealed to the police and protesters to prevent the situation from escalating, saying the ongoing Assembly session provided a forum to take up the students’ demands.
“I have appealed to the Jharkhand Police and everyone concerned to ensure that the protest remains peaceful and that no obstruction is caused. The Assembly session is underway, so these issues have to be raised in the House,” Jairam Mahato said, adding that the issues raised on the streets should reach the House.
He said he had asked the students to remain at the protest site until talks were held and their demands addressed.
Meanwhile, Devendra Mahato invoked a wordplay to describe the scale of the agitation.
“The palindrome of ‘Yuva’ (youth) is ‘Vayu’ (wind) — nobody can stop Vayu,” he said.
(Edited by Stela Dey)