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NSUI workers hurt in lathi-charge

JAIPUR: More than two dozen students were injured when the police tried to stop a march by members of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) from proceeding towards the Assembly here on Thursday. The NSUI workers, led by their president Nadeem Javed, were demanding student union elections in the State’s universities.

This was the second rally of a Congress-affiliated body which faced the heat of police lathis in three days since the commencement of the Assembly session. On Tuesday, the opening day of the session, a Youth Congress rally marching towards the Assembly had a similar encounter with the police.

Congress general secretary Ashok Gehlot, in a statement from Delhi, condemned the police lathi-charge on NSUI workers and termed it another instance of insensitivity of the BJP Government here. “Peaceful protests are tools in the hands of citizens to press for their demands or show their resentment. The State Government has once again used its brute force to suppress public opinion,” Mr. Gehlot said.

PCC president B.D. Kalla said many student leaders including Mr. Javed and State NSUI president Dheeraj Gujjar were seriously injured in the police action. “Instead of talking peace with the students, the Government chose to unleash terror on them,” said Mr. Kalla demanding action against police officers.

The issue came up in the Assembly when Congress chief whip Zuber Khan informed the House about the lathi-charge going on outside. Mr. Kalla put the figure of the injured at 50. While agitated Congress members demanded a statement from the Home Minister, Education Minister Ghanshyam Tiwari explained that it was not the State Government or the university authorities who had put a ban on student elections but the courts.

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