NDA holds 'Mahadharna' to protest police lathicharge

Sushil Kumar Modi said the incident of lathicharge had exposed the Nitish Kumar government's anti-Dalit face

National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Saturday held a 'Mahadharna' in Patna to protest against alleged police lathicharge on Dalit students while they were protesting against lowering their scholarship amount on Wednesday.

The sit-in was organised in front of BJP's state headquarters in which all prominent leaders from NDA's four constituents — Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), Rashtriya Lok Samata Party and Hindustani Awam Morcha — participated.

Coming down heavily on the Nitish Kumar government, senior Bihar BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said the incident of lathicharge had exposed the state government's anti-Dalit face and demanded restoration of scholarship which Dalit students were getting earlier.

The state government could not muzzle the voice of Dalit students simply by power, Modi said while adding that Dalit students, who were pursuing technical studies outside the state, were the worst affected.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar reduced the scholarship of Dalit students in the garb of fake colleges, he said and added that officials involved in the scholarship scam should immediately arrested.

NDA would force the state government to give scholarship of Rs 1 lakh to Dalit students, he said.

BJP chief Mangal Pandey said that Dalit, Mahadalit and Extremely Backward Class were the worst victims of the grand secular alliance government.

The state government, which used to give Rs 1.50 lakh as post matric scholarship to Dalit students, had reduced the amount to Rs 15,000 thus forcing the students to come back midway from other states, Pandey said.

LJP Parliamentary Board Chairman Chirag Paswan and said that Kumar's intention was always to muzzle the voice of dalits but he could not get the voice suppressed.

"Nitish Kumar is playing with the future of Dalit students by depriving them of the scholarship. But we are not afraid of such incident of lathicharge," he said.