Students’ body calls for Bihar bandh today, gets Manjhi’s support

PATNA: Left-backed All India Students’ Association (AISA) on Friday gave a call for “Bihar bandh (shutdown)” on Saturday against “Agnipath”.

“After Bihar bandh, we will give a call for Bharat bandh, as this issue has riled the youth across the country. How can youth be retired from service after just four years? We urge all people and political parties to extend their support to the shutdown call,” Shabir Kumar, state secretary of AISA, said at a press conference.

The shutdown call found support from former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, whose party HAM-S is a constituent of the ruling NDA in Bihar. “We are with youths of the nation. Though we do not support any form of violence, HAM-S has decided to support Bihar bandh call but in the interest of nation and youths,” Manjhi tweeted.

The main opposition party, the RJD, appeared to be cautious. “The Centre is playing with the future of the youth. People may have differences on the means adopted by the students to vent their ire, but nobody can dispute their demands. Old rules should be followed for Army recruitment and the Agnipath scheme should be withdrawn,” its state unit president Jagdanand Singh said.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar’s party, the JD(U), echoed similar sentiments. “The Centre should try to take students into confidence. At a time when there is acute joblessness and regular Army recruitment is withheld for two years, the new scheme with no job security has pushed them into despair. The government must rethink over it,” its national president Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh said.

BJP, the biggest constituent of the ruling NDA in Bihar, on the other hand, said “the agitation was allowed to be hijacked by anti-socials and vested interests from opposition parties to give it a violent turn”. “We will be watching this for the next 24 hours to see how the police tackle the anti-socials and political party workers trying to fan trouble by spreading rumours. After that, I will give statement. At present, we are observing how goons of RJD have been given a field day to operate in the name of students’ agitation and how a misconception is being spread about a good scheme that will create employment opportunities for youth not just in the armed forces, but also beyond it,” said state BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal, whose house in Bettiah was attacked by a mob.

Rajya Sabha MP and senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said that like other BJP-ruled states, Bihar should also come forward and announce to accord priority to “Agniveers” in state jobs.