Mumbai: Maharashtra’s education minister Vinod Tawde has stoked up controversy after reportedly asking the police to “arrest” a student for recording a question and answer session at a college in Amravati on Friday.
According to a student of Shivaji Arts and Commerce College, the minister had been invited as the chief guest for a debate competition. As the students were not able to pose any questions to the minister during the event, some of them approached him as he was leaving and asked him if the government would provide free education to the poor. To this query, the minister said that the students should “start working” if they “can’t study”. Shocked by the minister’s response, another student, Yuvraj Dabhade began recording the exchange on his cell phone.
Irked by having been recorded, the minister reportedly told the student to delete the clip and instructed his security personnel to “arrest” him and put him in the van, according to the student. He also said that the police promptly put the student into the van, took his mobile phone and deleted the video. The student was let go only after his fellow college mates surrounded the van and prevented it from leaving.
As reports of the incident went viral, this did not sit well with people and the matter soon turned into a political controversy.
Tweeting about the incident, Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray on Saturday said: “Every student must read this. “The education minister of Maharashtra directs cops to arrest student”. Why? Because he was shooting an interaction! No tough questions please! They want Youth only to man their electoral booths, not answer questions about education & jobs. (sic)” He also attached a newspaper clipping of the incident.
Every student must read this. “The education minister of Maharashtra directs cops to arrest student”. Why? Because he was shooting an interaction! No tough questions please!
They want Youth only to man their electoral booths, not answer questions about education & jobs. pic.twitter.com/X7iv7XZzLs— Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) January 5, 2019
Members of the Yuva Sena event came out on the streets to protest the minister’s remark.
In response to the reported incident, MLC Kapil Patil wrote a letter to the minister saying that if the incident was true, his behaviour was unbecoming of an education minister.
“The student was from a poor family. When asked if the government will provide free education, your response was to tell them to get a job. This is a shocking reply. You have your roots in students’ movements. You should have shown an understanding approach,” Patil said in his letter.
Tawde has, however, denied the claims and said that he did not instruct the police to arrest anyone. Speaking to the Mirror, Tawde said that the claims are false. “The interaction lasted for two-and-a-half hours. I always interact with students when they want to ask me questions. Some students started recording when I was taking their questions so I suggested that we should go inside the hall and have a proper discussion if they wanted to record. A police personnel took one of the students aside. I did not say anything,” the Mirror quoted Tawde as saying.
