“They wanted revenge on BJP…”: RS Prasad slams Bihar govt over ‘lathi charge’ on party workers

A BJP leader from Jehanabad died, allegedly during a police lathi charge, while participating in a protest march by his party against the Bihar government’s teacher recruitment policy doing away with the domicile requirement for the recruitment of teachers.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad on Saturday accused that the lathi charge on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers during a protest in Patna was "revenge" by the Bihar Government on the party workers for asking resignation from Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav. "I just met the female BJP workers. Is this how women are thrashed by the Police? What is the meaning of this? Some suffered fractures, while some had injuries on their heads. Are these women criminals? I have been 'lathi-charged'. I have gone to jail during the JP Movement. Are political workers attacked like this, that too women? This is very unfortunate and painful. I condemn this. CM Nitish will have to give answers. Have barricades not been broken by other political party workers before?" he said while speaking to ANI here.

"They wanted revenge on the BJP workers for asking for resignation from Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav," Ravi Shankar Prasad added. A BJP leader from Jehanabad died, allegedly during a police lathi charge, while participating in a protest march by his party against the Bihar government's teacher recruitment policy doing away with the domicile requirement for the recruitment of teachers.

Massive clashes ensued in Bihar on Thursday between BJP workers and the Bihar police after leaders of the opposition party (BJP) attempted to march towards the Bihar Vidhan Sabha in protest against the Nitish government's teacher recruitment policy. Delhi MP Manoj Tiwari on Saturday alleged that it was pre-planned to beat BJP workers or rather kill them.

"It was pre-planned to beat BJP workers on July 13 or rather to kill them. Suddenly route (of the protest) was changed and tear gas, water cannon, and lathi charge were used," Manoj Tiwari said. BJP formed a four-member committee of the BJP that visited the injured BJP workers at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) in Bihar's Patna on Saturday.

Four BJP members including Manoj Tiwari, Samrat Choudhary, Raghubar Das and Sunita Duggal met the injured BJP workers at Patna's IGIMS Hospital. Speaking on the Thursday incident, BJP leader Sunita Duggal termed it as a heinous incident and said that the sequence of events will be investigated and the report will be given to BJP National President JP Nadda.

"There are several issues. The way this heinous incident has happened...the sequence of events will be investigated and the report will be given to our National President. We will also talk to the police and ask who gave them the order to lathi charge the BJP workers. We will also meet the workers," said Sunita Duggal. Earlier on Friday, Union Minister Nityanand Rai strongly criticized the Bihar Government, headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, for the alleged lathi charge compared Bihar CM to Brigadier General Reginald Dyer, who in 1919 carried out the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, and demanded his resignation.

He asserted that Bihar is witnessing "Jungle Raj 3" and held Nitish Kumar responsible for the death of party leader Vijay Singh. "BJP workers were protesting peacefully for the demand of employed teachers. But during this, the action taken by the police at the behest of the state government was barbaric like that of General Dyer, Mamata Banerjee and Congress," he added."

"Instances of corruption are surfacing all across the state, and the manner in which the police acted, resorting to brutal action in Patna on BJP workers, makes it evident that Bihar is currently under Jungle Raj 3," Rai said.  (ANI)

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