A group of Adivasi students was allegedly threatened and detained by police at the Maharashtra Congress headquarters in Dadar in the early hours of Monday, ahead of a planned protest at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan over grievances linked to tribal student hostels in the state.
The students had earlier protested in Nashik before walking to Mumbai and seeking permission to hold their agitation at Azad Maidan. They said they had not received a response from the police regarding permission for the protest.
According to the Congress, the students were staying at its Dadar office on Sunday night because they had no place to stay in the city. The party alleged that police visited the office later that night without permission and subsequently detained some of the students.
Maharashtra Congress president Harshvardhan Sapkal demanded the immediate release of the detained students. He also warned that Congress leaders would travel to Mumbai and lay siege to Varsha bungalow, the official residence of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, if the students were not freed.
The reported detention came amid an ongoing dispute over new government rules for Adivasi student hostels. The students have been protesting the rules and the condition of hostel facilities. The government has accepted most of their demands, but the students have not withdrawn their agitation, according to the report.
The wider dispute concerns the safety and dignity of students living in state-run tribal hostels. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who met the group during a visit to Pune, had urged the government to address their grievances. In an open letter to Fadnavis in August, Gandhi said the new rules would “strip them of their dignity and shut off their path to education”.
Gandhi also highlighted allegations of inadequate food, sanitation and medical care in some hostels. He said students had suffered injuries and deaths, including from snake bites, and claimed that facilities for women students were in a worse condition. These claims were made in his letter and were cited in the report.
The episode places two immediate administrative questions at the centre of the dispute: how permission for the proposed Azad Maidan protest was handled and what action was taken at the Congress office in Dadar. The Congress has described the students’ detention as unacceptable, while the report does not include a police account of the alleged detention or the visit to the party office.
The next developments will depend on whether the detained students are released and whether the planned protest at Azad Maidan proceeds. The government’s response to the remaining hostel-related demands is also pending.
