Eight Arrested For Waving Black Flag At PM Modi And Vasundhara Raje’s Rally In Rajasthan

The Rajasthan Police arrested five people on Saturday in pursuance of the arrest of three people on Friday after they waved black flags at a public meeting where the current Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Vasundhara Raje were present.

Course of events

The incident took place at Jhunjhunu on March 8. Prime Minister Modi who had been visiting Rajasthan on and off recently, was there in Jhunjhunu along with the Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje to launch National Nutrition Mission in Rajasthan and also to make an announcement regarding expansion of ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ campaign to all the 640 districts of the country.

As Ms Raje got up to make the speech some people raised slogans and started waving black flags, discrediting the incumbent government in Rajasthan. BJP supporters and police present there rushed to the corner to pacify the crowd and control the ruckus being created there. Vasundhara Raje continued with her speech despite the protest.

The police sought a day’s custody of the accused while presenting them before a Magistrate in a local court which took cognisance of the matter and gave a day’s charge of six people to the police. While the remaining two were presented in court on Sunday.

What did the officials say?

The station house officer of the Kotwali police station Gopal Singh said as quoted by the Hindustan Times, “They indulged in sloganeering, tried to uproot some barricading, and obstructed police personnel in discharging their duties.”

Charges levelled against accused

The arrested people who have been booked under Section 147 (rioting), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of duty), Section 353 (assault to deter public servant), and Section 336 (act endangering life or safety of others) of the Indian Penal Code, were the contractual public servants on administrative post in the National Health Mission and they have been trying to meet the chief minister regarding their contractual job being upgraded to a permanent government job.

The Logical Indian Take

In a democracy, people have the right to dissent. The Prime Minister and the Chief Minister being public representatives should listen to the people so that they don’t have to resort to sloganeering and waving black flags. Getting them arrested on so many charges is not right.

On the other hand, keeping the political undertone aside, unemployment is a significant crisis plaguing our country. PM Modi administration’s pet project ‘Skill India’ has not been able to bring about any substantial changes in the market.

The government at the centre as well as at the state are running way behind in creation of new jobs, and we are looking at a human resource catastrophe where people are unskilled, there are no jobs in the market, and that has the potential to disturb the social fabric of the country.