PATNA: Bihar Bandh call given by the opposition parties met with near-total response in the state with the students' wings of the RJD, the Congress, CPI, CPI(ML) and the Jan Adhukar Party taking the lead in observing bandh. Railways were spared today, but road transport was badly hit as the agitators supporting the demands of the examinees blocked national and state highways, including Gandhi Bridge on the Ganga.
All commercial shops, business establishments, roadside stalls were shut. At Dak Bungalow road circle here, the agitators squatted for few hours under the leadership of two CPI(ML) legislators and JAP president Pappu Yadav.
Two prominent BJP leaders from Patna, both products of JP-led students movement reacted late in favour of the agitating examinees.
Former union minister and Lok Sabha member from Patna Saheb, Ravishankar Prasad on Friday talked to the Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnav and claimed he has been told by the bureaucrat-turned-minister that no harm would be done to the students. On January 25, chairman of the Railway Board had issued a press note warning the examinees with "police action and life time debarment in getting employment in the Railways".
Former deputy chief minister of Bihar and Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Modi said he had a long discussion with Vaishnav. "It is because of the lapse on part of the railways which led to stir," said Modi who himself had led many agitations as general secretary of Patna University students union in the 70s and was jailed under MISA too.
Both Modi and Prasad, also former leaders of the students union, came to the rescue of the students and appealed to the government not to resort to repressive measures against the students.
The young leader of opposition, Tejaswi Prasad Yadav, who had made unemployment the main issue in 2020 assembly elections, is away abroad on honeymoon and did not issue even a word on social media.
The Bihar BJP leaders could not react till the agitation was confined in Bihar from Supaul in North to Sasaram in south west Bihar, Patna, Fatuah and Buxar close to Ghazipur in UP
Their support for the agitations came after the violence affected Prayagraj and Gorakhpur railway stations in poll-bound UP.
