Alwar: Rajasthan Police picked up a group of college students in Alwar on Sunday, detaining them before Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s public programme in the city, saying they were preparing to stage a protest and display black flags during his visit.
Shah, travelling with Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma, was slated to address a public gathering at Vijay Nagar Ground in Alwar and inaugurate development schemes worth ₹6,279 crore across Rajasthan, including projects valued at around ₹783 crore specifically for Alwar district.
According to police sources quoted by news agency PTI, the students were taken into custody before a planned demonstration at RR College.
The detainees had intended to highlight the lathi-charge on students at Jantar Mantar in Delhi during the July “Cockroach Janta Party” protest, along with other grievances such as deteriorating road conditions, alleged corruption in the state fisheries department dubbed the “Matsya scam”, and a call to reinstate student union elections in Rajasthan, the sources told PTI.
The Alwar detentions occur against a broader backdrop of preventive arrests ahead of Shah’s public appearances in recent weeks, as well as continued Opposition demands for the home minister’s resignation over the Delhi police action against student protesters in July, as reported by Hindustan Times.
Pattern Of Preventive Arrests
In the early hours of August 1, Pune police took several Maharashtra Youth Congress and Pune City Congress office-bearers into custody just after midnight, ahead of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and NSA Ajit Doval’s city visit. The Youth Congress alleged its leaders were detained for nearly 16 hours and that their mobile phones were seized by police during the period of detention.
Later that day in Pune, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Vasant More was taken into custody after he declared plans to stage a protest during Shah’s visit. Police described the detention as preventive, stating it was not connected to any criminal case and was intended to prevent disruption to the minister’s programme and an award ceremony involving Doval.
The Alwar students pointed to the July 20 police action as part of a larger student-led campaign at Jantar Mantar against the NEET-UG paper leak, a movement that brought together activists from groups including the All India Students Association and the Cockroach Janta Party.
The protests ultimately prompted senior BJP leader Dharmendra Pradhan to step down as education minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet.
Student groups have since alleged that detentions of activists have continued despite assurances from the government that no punitive action would follow the protests’ conclusion.
Since then, student bodies have alleged that detentions of activists have persisted, despite government assurances that there would be no punitive action once the protests concluded.