The Pune MPSC students’ protest entered its tenth day on Saturday amid allegations by NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar that police were filing cases and issuing notices to participants to weaken the agitation. Pawar said he had met senior officials at Vishrambaug police station and submitted applications seeking permission for the protest.
According to Pawar, police were registering cases against students taking part in the agitation instead of booking him, even though he was also participating in the protest as an elected representative. He demanded that a case be registered against him as well.
“As a people’s representative, even though I was participating in the MPSC students’ protest, police are deliberately filing cases against the students instead of me and harassing them,” Pawar said, according to the statement reported by The Indian Express. He said his applications to senior police officials sought permission for the continuation of the protest.
Pawar further alleged that police were issuing notices to students and described the action as an attempt to end the agitation. “This harassment is solely being carried out by the police to break the protest. However, under no circumstances will this protest stop until the corrupt MPSC chairperson resigns,” he said.
The protest has continued in Pune for nine days before Saturday, making the latest day the tenth of the agitation. The demonstration is centred on demands connected with the Maharashtra Public Service Commission and the resignation of its chairperson, although the supplied report does not detail the specific allegations against the commission head.
Pawar also criticised the language allegedly used by police officials while dealing with the demonstrators. He said students, including children of farmers and labourers, and young people who represented Maharashtra’s future had been called “terrorists”, “extremists” and “spies”. He condemned the Pune police and appealed to the chief minister to intervene.
The MLA’s intervention places the protest at the intersection of examination administration, policing and the right of students to demonstrate. His account indicates that the dispute is no longer limited to the students’ demands before the MPSC but also includes allegations about the manner in which the protest is being handled by local police.
The report does not include a response from Pune police, the Maharashtra Public Service Commission or the state government to Pawar’s allegations. Pawar said the agitation would continue until the MPSC chairperson resigned and asked the authorities to register a case against him alongside any action taken against protesting students.
