Rahul Gandhi slams Maharashtra CM over arrest of tribal students, ignores MPSC aspirants’ demands

MUMBAI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday slammed the BJP-led Mahayuti government for targeting the tribal students who are protesting for their basic demand and ignoring the competitive exam aspirants’ demands.

Leader of the Opposition and Lok Sabha MP Rahul Gandhi released the video message accusing Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis of ignoring the student’s demands despite repeatedly raising his voice.

Rahul Gandhi said that the students of Maharashtra are tormented by CM Devendra Fadnavis’s led government’s education system and injustice. He said the tribal students arrived in Mumbai with their demands—some by bus, and some by walking.

“What are their (tribal students) demands? The student wanted the basic facilities in tribal residential schools and hostels that are scholarships. And it is the right of every student to get the scholarship, but that has been ignored,” Rahul Gandhi alleged.

He further said that the tribal students who had come to Mumbai to protest had no place to stay, so they stayed in the Congress office – Tilak Bhavan at Dadar, Mumbai/ “But surprisingly, before the morning, the incumbent government police barged into the Congress office and hauled these children away. Even before the student demonstrations could begin at Azad Maidan in Mumbai. This is the response that was given by the government through its police. The student walked all the way from Nashik and other places in Mumbai,” Gandhi said.

Congress leader further extended his support to Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) student protestors who are demanding the removal of the MPSC chairman. “In Pune, MPSC aspirants are sitting on a satyagraha. These demands are not new—I had spoken to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis about them. Nothing happened then. That’s why these children are on the streets today. The Congress Party and I stand with the students of Maharashtra. We will not step back even an inch,” Mr. Gandhi said.

Maharashtra Congress president Harshvardhan Sapkal said that sending police into the Congress office and taking tribal students into custody is completely illegal and a misuse of the law. He asked if these students who have come to protest are criminals and are protesting a crime in Maharashtra.

“CM Devendra Fadnavis sent the police to our Congress office in the middle of the night. We will never tolerate this attempt to suppress the voice of tribal students,” Sapkal alleged.

Mumbai Congress president Varsha Gaikwad said the students had come to seek justice and demand their rights, and it is not right to take police action against them.

MLA Bhai Jagtap said these tribal students are not criminals to be detained in the middle of the night. “The police detained the students and took some of them to Yellow Gate police station and others to Thane. Some of them are girls. They were made to stand outside the police station for three hours. The NSUI president was taken into custody and driven around the city. What is going on? Congress will not tolerate this high-handedness and hooliganism by the police,” Bhai Jagtap warned. 

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