Protests over the Centre's newly introduced 'Agnipath' scheme for recruitment in armed forces left Bihar in the throes of anarchy on Thursday as hordes of aspirants hit the streets, vandalising buildings and vehicles, storming railway stations and setting fire to train coaches.
Simmering discontent in Bihar, where agitation over the scheme was held in a handful of districts a day ago, seemed to have spread like a wildfire to the major parts of the state, as infuriated agitators went on the rampage, seeking immediate rollback of ‘Agnipath’ -- under which hiring has been proposed for a four-year-period followed by compulsory retirement, for at least 75 per cent of the personnel, without any pension benefits.
Police fired teargas shells and charged baton to disperse the angry demonstrators who blocked railway tracks, threw burning tyres on roads and performed push-ups and other drills on the streets as a mark of protest against the recruitment process.
"So far we have arrested 125 people in connection with the violence. Two dozen FIRs have been registered. At least 16 police personnel have been injured across the state in clashes with the protesters," Sanjay Singh, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order), told PTI.
He said, "We are conducting further investigations and arrest of more people is likely."
The BJP, which rules the Centre, appeared to have taken a bit of the heat. The house of one of its MLAs was vandalised at Chhapra, while another female legislator was hurt in a stone-pelting incident at Nawada, where the party office was also torched.
"The party office is situated at some distance from the town. Attack on the premises by a mob is certainly an act of a conspiracy. Thankfully, the building was locked with nobody inside. The administration has been caught napping," alleged Sanjay Kumar Munna, the district BJP chief of Nawada.
In Nawada town, the party's MLA from Warisaliganj constituency, Aruna Devi, was travelling to the district court premises in connection with a case. Her car was mobbed by the protesters near a railway crossing and pelted with stones. The legislator, her driver, two security personnel and two personal staff members suffered injuries in the incident.
"They were visibly provoked to see the party flag attached to my car which was ripped apart by the attackers," recalled the MLA.
The party flag met a similar fate in Chhapra, at the house of local MLA C N Gupta, where protesters also vandalised a portion of the premises.
No occupant of the house was hurt. It was not known whether the MLA was inside when the house was attacked.
Former deputy chief minister and BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi came out with a statement deploring the attacks on his party colleagues and its office in Nawada and also urging the Nitish Kumar government in the state to take steps to allay the anxieties triggered by the introduction of contractual hiring in armed forces.
"Union Home Minister Amit Shah has announced that Agniveers (army personnel discharged after four years of service) will be given preference in CRPF etc. Some states have made similar promises with regard to employment in police. Bihar should consider doing the same," Modi, now a Rajya Sabha MP, pleaded.
However, the chief minister's JD(U) seemed unimpressed. The party's national president, Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan, came out with an impassioned tweet urging the Centre to do an "avilamb punarvichaar" (a rethink without delay) on the scheme which has "given rise to fears and anxieties in the minds of a large number of youths in Bihar and other parts of the country".
The protests also caused massive disruption of rail traffic. According to the East Central Railway zone headquartered in Hajipur, seven passenger trains had to be cancelled because of the disturbances while many others were either short-terminated or run via alternate routes.
"Railway traffic had been disrupted since 8 am. Normalcy was restored by 1530 hours," said the ECR in a statement.
Besides staging demonstrations on railway tracks in over a dozen districts, the protesters set fire to coaches in Chhapra and Bhabhua while broken window panes of several trains bore the testimony of the vandalism on display.
Cities like Bhagalpur, Begusarai, Jehanabad, Buxar, Katihar and Gaya witnessed angry protests with young men burning tyres on roads to disrupt traffic and staging marches demanding a rollback of the scheme.
The unrest has provided the opposition in the state with fresh ammunition.
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav attacked the Centre over the move on social media.
His alliance partner, CPI(M)'s student and youth wings, came out with a statement announcing a statewide agitation on Friday.