India, July 30 -- Asserting that student protesters are "not terrorists," Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke on Wednesday demanded action against officials who ordered pellet gun firing at Jantar Mantar on July 20, warning that the youth will "change the government" if police harassment continues. Returning home after a month-long protest in New Delhi that led to the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the NEET paper leak, Dipke claimed police across multiple states are visiting student activists' homes and threatening them with arrest. "The government should behave well now. The blood of students was spilled on the streets on July 20 (during the March to Parliament). It was really bad. Wasn't it enough, now that the students are still being troubled? In many states, police are visiting the houses of students and threatening them with arrests," he told reporters at the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar airport.
Dipke also sought strict legal action against officials who authorised the use of pellet guns against student demonstrators at New Delhi's Jantar Mantar and warned that the government should not presume that students' anger has decreased after Pradhan's resignation. Meanwhile, Dipke's mother on Wednesday claimed that her son had received a video threat coercing him to join the BJP or face severe consequences against his family. Speaking to a news channel here ahead of Abhijeet's return from New Delhi, his mother, Anita Dipke, said that the intimidation forced the parents to flee their home and take shelter at a relative's residence in the Konkan region for 16 days. "Abhijeet received threats but initially did not tell us. He mentioned a video and advised me not to watch it," she said.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.