Patna, Oct 13 Activists of the student and youth wings of the CPI(ML) Liberation on Tuesday held a protest march in Patna seeking the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the SIR process.
The protest march, starting from Gandhi Maidan under tight security measures, was headed towards Lok Bhavan but was stopped by the police at J P Golambar.
Members of CPI(ML) Liberation student wing All India Students’ Association (AISA) and youth wing Revolutionary Youth Association (RYA) raised slogans such as ‘Gyanesh Kumar, isteefa do’ (Gyanesh Kumar must resign) and ‘Vote chor, gaddi chhor’ (Vote thief, vacate the chair) during their protest march.
CPI(ML) Liberation MLA Sandeep Saurav said, “No matter how many barricades they put up, they won’t be able to save Gyanesh Kumar. We are protesting peacefully in a democratic manner. The Constitution allows for peaceful protests. It is only under exceptional circumstances that a government can impose restrictive provisions under BNSS, but the current governments are misusing those provisions.”
He alleged that both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bihar CM Samrat Choudhary “came to power through illegal means and ‘vote chori’ and, were therefore, obsessed with protecting Gyanesh Kumar”.
“The king’s life lies in the parrot. Therefore, he is trying to save the parrot,” Saurav said, alluding to a fable where the king’s life was conditional upon a parrot being alive.
The CPI(ML) MLA also demanded that the Bihar assembly elections be annulled as, he alleged, “it was conducted through illegal means”.
Some protesters broke through barricades at J P Golambar and marched towards the Dak Bungalow Chauraha, following which police detained several agitators, including female students.
“Around 250 people took part in the protest. We detained around 15 individuals after they broke through barricades, and dispersed the remaining crowd. Traffic movement has returned to normalcy,” Town 2 Sub-divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Kamakhya Narayan Singh said.
According to media reports, unidentified protesters ran away with the key of one of the detention buses to prevent fellow agitators from being taken away. Police, however, could not immediately confirm whether the key was stolen.
Meanwhile, Patna district administration, through an official statement, directed all organisations and individuals to hold demonstrations only at the designated protest site in Gardanibagh.
Protests at locations other than the designated site disrupt traffic, cause unnecessary inconvenience to the general public, adversely affect the functioning of important institutions like schools, hospitals and courts, cause problems for traders and other businesses, and create serious difficulties in the movement of elderly people, patients, schoolchildren and emergency services, including ambulances, the statement added.
Emphasising that maintaining law and order was the district administration’s top priority, it warned that those staging demonstrations at unauthorised locations or violating the directives would face legal action in accordance with the law.
“Everyone has the right to protest in a democracy, but no one can be allowed to disrupt public life and spread anarchy in the country. The Modi government at the Centre and the Samrat Choudhary dispensation in Bihar will ensure that anti-national forces do not prevail,” BJP leader Mritunjay Tiwari told PTI Videos.
(PTI News)
