Jharkhand Abvp Activists Detained Ranchi Assembly March Lathi Charge Protest

More than 200 ABVP activists, including three senior office-bearers, were detained on Tuesday while marching from Ranchi’s Old Assembly area towards the new Assembly building in protest against the lathi-charge on students, who were protesting alleged irregularities in government job examinations on Monday.

Those detained included Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) national general secretary Dr Virendra Singh Solanki, national secretary Abhay Pratap Singh and Jharkhand state secretary Prakash Tuti.

According to ABVP social media coordinator Satyam Mishra, the activists were detained around 2-2.30 pm near the Old Assembly after police stopped their march and took them away in different vehicles. The activists were released after 9pm.

Mishra said there was some use of force by the police to stop the protesters, but clarified that there was no full-fledged lathi-charge. “There was some light use of force,” he said.

The ABVP had organised the event in protest against the previous day’s lathi-charge on students during their march. The ABVP march came on a day when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had called a Jharkhand bandh over the incident.

The BJP has launched a social media campaign using the hashtag #HitlerHemant to target the Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand government over the police action against protesting students on August 10.

BJP state general secretary Amar Kumar Bauri, while criticising the action over the students and the ABVP activists, said the hashtag was not merely a social media trend but a symbol of what he called the government’s “cruelty and brutality” towards students.

Bauri alleged that the government was trying to suppress the students’ movement through force, adding the BJP would continue the fight “from the streets to the Assembly.”

Meanwhile, student leader Devendra Nath Mahto, after he was allegedly injured in the protest on Monday, issued an open letter from the hospital. Thanking all those who participated in the Assembly gherao programme, he demanded action against those responsible for the lathi-charge on the peaceful protesters. On Tuesday evening, students also took out a silent march in protest against the lathi- charge.