Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan on Wednesday unwittingly lent his name to Bihar’s latest political wrangling with the Opposition parties accusing the state government of thwarting his show on Tuesday. The government’s frequent inability to control large crowds was behind the Opposition parties’ anger.
Most prescheduled public programmes involving the gathering of large crowds have turned into utter fiascos in Bihar recently, prompting the police to wield the lathi.
With the administrative authorities seemingly unprepared to handle thousands of fans of the actor in Patna on Tuesday, they resorted to vandalism on learning that Khan would not come. The police had to spray water and lathicharge the crowd. In several district towns, similar ineptness has led to thousands of aspirants for teachers’ posts getting lathicharged for the past four days.
Conflicting reasons were cited for Khan’s inability to reach Patna for a scheduled promotional event for his upcoming film Don 2. Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi cited “bad weather and poor visibility” as the reasons behind Khan’s failure to arrive, but the actor’s tweet citing “security issue” led the Opposition RJD and Youth Congress to condemn the government.
“Sheer inefficiency in making security arrangements and handling large crowds has led the police to routinely lathicharge people. The government’s claims of well-managed administration have frequently proved as lies,” said RJD state president Ramchandra Purve.
“The government unfairly prevented the actor from making his debut visit to Patna,” Mr Ramchandra added.
With admit cards for lakhs of aspirants for teachers’ posts currently being distributed across Bihar, long queues of aspirants standing throughout the cold day have gone berserk at several places due to mismanagement of the whole process.
Fewer distribution counters than needed, slow release of cards and coarse policemen disciplining the aspirants has led to violent protests ending in lathicharge. Nearly 26 lakh aspirants will sit for the teachers’ eligibility tests next week.