Bihar Assembly protests MNS manhandling students

The Bihar Assembly today strongly protested manhandling of students and parents hailing from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in Satara allegedly by workers of Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtras Navnirman Sena (MNS).

MNS chief Raj Thackeray

While members cutting across party lines were expressing anger over the incident, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has sought report about the unpleasant episode from the Maharashtra government.

Modi said for the "sake of publicity Thackeray was indulging in such undemocratic activities." Sanjay Singh (BJP) raised the matter during zero hour and soon members from both treasury and opposition benches rose from their seats and demanded the government to take up the issue with Maharashtra.

Leader of Opposition Abdul Bari Siddiqui demanded that the government should contact its Maharashtra counterpart and inform the house in detail about the incident.

Members from his RJD party joined him in the protest. On Speaker's assertion that the government was concerned over the matter but since the issue was not raised by the member during call attention motion it could not be taken up as per rules. The Congress demanded that it could be raised in the house as suo moto.

According to reports from Satara, the incident took place around 11 am at the Satara Civil Hospital on Monday, where a medical examination of the boys was held for admission to standard 6 in the school.

MNS activists came to the hospital and claimed fake age proofs were being submitted by the parents of the students, who hailed from Bihar and UP to get admission in the school. Later they pushed and manhandled parents of some children, reports said. u00a0