On Sunday, Rajasthan Police detained a group of college students in Alwar as they prepared to protest during Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s public event in the city. The students intended to wave black flags at Shah, expressing their dissent ahead of his arrival.
Home Minister Amit Shah to Launch Major Development Projects in Alwar
Amit Shah, the Union Home Minister, is set to address a public meeting at Vijay Nagar Ground in Alwar. He will be accompanied by Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma during this event. The meeting will coincide with the inauguration of development projects totaling Rs 6,279 crore across the state, which includes projects worth Rs 783 crore specifically in Alwar district.
The protesters had planned to raise the matter of the lathi-charge on students at Jantar Mantar in Delhi during the Cockroach Janta Party protest in July. The detentions in Alwar form part of a broader pattern of preventive arrests ahead of Amit Shah’s public engagements in recent weeks. They also coincide with the Opposition’s continued demand for the Home Minister’s resignation over the police action against student protesters in Delhi in July. Those demonstrations prompted the resignation of senior BJP leader Dharmendra Pradhan from his post as education minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. Student organisations have subsequently claimed that activists continue to face detention, notwithstanding government assurances that no punitive measures would be taken once the protests had concluded.
In Pune on August 1, several office-bearers of the Maharashtra Youth Congress and Pune City Congress were taken into custody shortly after midnight ahead of the visit by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. The Youth Congress alleged that its leaders were held for nearly 16 hours and that police seized their mobile phones during the detention.
The students were taken into custody ahead of a proposed protest at RR College, according to police sources cited in media reports. Other issues on their agenda included the poor condition of roads, the alleged Matsya scam involving corruption in the fisheries department, and the demand for the restoration of student union elections in Rajasthan, the report said, citing a police source.
