Police burst tear gas shells and used water canons to disperse thousands of BJP workers, including senior leaders, who tried to march towards the Bihar Vidhan Sabha in protest against the Nitish Kumar government’s teacher recruitment policy.
State BJP president Samrat Choudhary told reporters before the march commenced at the historic Gandhi Maidan that the opposition party was holding the government to account, especially Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, who had promised “10 lakh jobs”.
“Everybody knows who made that rhetorical promise. Only one individual had done so. Now is the time to deliver,” said Choudhary, referring to the 2020 assembly poll campaign of the young RJD leader, whose party came to power last year after the BJP was stripped of the same with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s exit from the NDA.
BJP workers, many of them wearing saffron kurtas, saris, salwar suits, and bandanas, walked waving the party flag, while some were perched atop a “prachar rath” (campaign vehicle). Slogans like “Nitish Tejashwi istifa do” (Nitish Kumar must resign) filled the air as the procession covered a distance of about a kilometre until it encountered barricades put up at the Dak Bungalow crossing. Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Rajiv Mishra said, “We have deployed extra forces at all sensitive points and barricades, and where necessary, traffic has been diverted to alternative routes.”
The Bihar government cancelled the leaves of all teachers for a week, according to an official document. The Education Department also asked the district magistrates to inspect all state-run schools on Thursday to check the attendance of teachers.
“The attendance or presence of teachers in all government schools must be 100 percent on July 13. Strict departmental action, including suspension, should be taken against those teachers who are found absent during inspection on July 13,” said the letter by KK Pathak, the additional chief secretary (ACS-Education), on Wednesday.
The department also asked district education officers to cancel the leaves of all teaching staff for a week. “Only in emergency situations can permission (for leave) be taken directly from the ACS,” said the letter, which was also issued on Wednesday. The reasons behind the directives were not specified by the department in the letters.