The indefinite hunger strike begun by AISA’s Bihar Unit on 24th August ended on 29th August following a meeting with the Bihar Education Minister and a one-month ultimatum issued by AISA to the Government to meet the students’ demands.
The students have been agitating against the Bihar Government’s move to slash scholarships to SC/ST/OBC/Minority students. The first inkling that such scholarships are being cut came when 60 Dalit students from Champaran (Bihar) who had been receiving a Bihar Government scholarship supporting their education in a medical college in Odisha, were thrown out when the scholarship was withdrawn and they failed to pay their fees. Following protests by AISA, the Government restored the scholarship to those students – but subsequently announced a Rs 15000 cap on the scholarship! This amount is far from enough to cover the costs of education in private engineering and medical colleges. Further, there were indicators that the Bihar Government is also planning to cut back scholarships for SC/ST/OBC/Minority students in Government-run institutions also.
Along with the issue of the scholarships, AISA also raised the long-pending demand to refurbish the existing Ambedkar Hostels in the State which are in a highly dilapidated and dangerous state, and also construct new hostels for Dalit and other deprived students.
The hunger strike had also raised the demand for strict action against the police authorities responsible for the brutal lathicharge by Bihar police on a Dalit students’ rally in Patna.
Shivprakash Ranjan, AISA State Secretary accepted juice from the CPI(ML) State Secretary Comrade Kunal; State VP Kazim Irfani from AIKM National General Secretary Rajaram Singh; Pappu Kumar Ram, State Executive member from AIPWA leader Shashi Yadav; Babu Saheb, VP of AISA from Shri Sharadendu, the Head of Department of Hindi at Patna University; Santosh Arya, State Executive member from former Principal of Patna College and former Professor, Patna University Shri Naval Kishor; and Sanjay Sajan, State Executive Member from CPI(ML) PB member Comrade Amar.
