Congress's Atul Londhe dares Minister Jaykumar Gore over MPSC protest remarks, seeks apology

Mumbai: The Congress has said that MPSC students protested in Pune for 10 days and forced the BJP-led Mahayuti government to bend, but ministers in the government are now criticising the protest in an undignified manner. The party said the criticism of the Pune student protest by Jaykumar Gore, a minister in the Devendra Fadnavis government, is a grave insult to the students.

Congress senior spokesperson Atul Londhe has issued an open challenge. "I will give Minister Jaykumar Gore Rs 3,000 every day; let him sit with the students at the protest," Londhe said.

Slamming Gore's statement, Londhe said it had once again been exposed that the Bharatiya Janata Party government is anti-student. According to him, the government is not recruiting even though 70,000 posts are vacant, the MPSC exam schedule is in disarray, and whenever an exam is held, the paper leaks.

Londhe alleged that corrupt practices are going on in the Maharashtra Public Service Commission and that the government cannot fix them. He said students have to protest for 10 days at a stretch and that the BJP government has made a mess of their future. He added that when anyone protests for their just demands, the government must give an answer.

Lakhs of students from villages across the state are preparing for the MPSC exam in Pune. Atul Londhe said Minister Jaykumar Gore's remark insults these poor and honest students and their parents, and that he should apologise publicly.

According to Londhe, Gore has made the far-fetched claim that there is a foreign force behind the student protest. Londhe asked how foreign forces could reach Pune when the country has been in the "strong?" hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the past 13 years. He also asked whether the Modi government and the Fadnavis government are asleep.

Londhe said that defaming any protest is the BJP's modus operandi. He cited examples: the farmers' protest was called Khalistani, a foreign force is said to be behind the student protest, and the protest at Jantar Mantar too saw allegations of a foreign hand and of being anti-national. He said the BJP is making itself a laughing stock with such allegations.

Asking why those who cannot run the country sat on the chair at all, Londhe warned that these very students will not rest until they send you home.