Meghalaya BJP Slams Rahul Gandhi Over Ranchi Student Protests

CORRESPONDENT

SHILLONG: The Meghalaya unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) urged Parliament to function and targeted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his response to student protests, while declining to comment in detail on a controversial social media post by its youth leader Mewaker Lyngdoh Pakma.

BJP general secretary Wankitbok Pohshna criticised the alleged police action against student protesters in Ranchi, accusing the Congress-Jharkhand Mukti Morcha Government of suppressing a peaceful democratic movement.

He alleged that police used tear gas, lathis and water cannons against protesting students and said the BJP stood with them. Pohshna also questioned Gandhi's response to the Ranchi protests, alleging that he had taken different positions on student demonstrations depending on the political situation.

Asked about Pakma's deleted social media post calling for student protesters in New Delhi to be shot, Pohshna said political leaders should monitor their personal accounts and urged that attention be shifted to Parliament. Pakma, the Meghalaya BJP Youth Wing president, had shared a video of student demonstrations at Jantar Mantar with the caption, "Shoot them! Tear gas ain't enough!" and the hashtag #UAPA_Sedition. The post was later deleted, with the State BJP claiming that his account had been hacked briefly.

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