'Barbed Wires Have Filled Me With Anger': Hunger-Striking Devendra Nath Mahto Leads Jharkhand Students' March To Assembly | Video

Ranchi: Student leader Devendra Nath Mahto, who joined the job aspirants and students' march to the Jharkhand assembly on Monday, said he was most disturbed by the barbed-wire barricades erected by the administration and police, asking the state government if they were from Pakistan, China or Bangladesh.  

Mahto, also a Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha (JLKM) member, has been on a hunger strike at Jaipal Singh Munda Stadium, the main protest site, for the past 9 days. He carried the national flag in one hand and a photograph of Shibu Soren, a key-founder of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and father of Chief Minister Hemant Soren, in the other.

He also asked why the Jharkhand government wanted to create an anarchy-like  situation by not conceding the demands of protesting  job aspirants and students, accusing the government of trying to “mislead” students by refusing to concede their key demands, including a CBI probe into alleged examination irregularities.

Mahto, who has been on a hunger strike for nine days, reached the assembly in an ambulance carrying a photograph of late JMM patriarch Shibu Soren, father of chief minister Hemant Soren. He claimed he managed to reach the protest site despite attempts by the administration to stop him. Students also carried him on a stretched as flower petals were also showered on him. He said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) must investigate the alleged irregularities in recruitment examinations.

“I have become very weak from within, but seeing these barbed wires has filled me with anger,” he said, referring to the security arrangements put in place to stop the protesters from reaching the Assembly.

“If you turn the ‘Yuva’ (youth) upside down, they become ‘vayu’ (air). There is no force on earth that can stop the air,” Mahto said.

When asked government`s claim about conceding 98 percent of demands, he said, “These two per cent can bring down the government’s chair,” he said.

He said the remaining demands included a CBI probe into the alleged examination irregularities and cancellation of the CGL examination.

The students have been protesting over alleged irregularities in recruitment examinations, with the agitation escalating amid a continuing standoff between the protesters and the state government.