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GOA POLICE HARASSING PROTESTORS!
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GOA POLICE HARASSING PROTESTORS!

Aug 01- Aug 07, 2026, Stray Thoughts July 31, 2026 , by

AND a few stray thoughts for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when Vishwaguru Narendra Modi was furious because Instagram and Meta removed his video on reforms to the NEET exams. For a Saturday following the week on the Supreme Court order on Tuesday, July 28 to the Central and all BJP ruled government to immediately release protesting students. For a Saturday following the week when the new Education Minister Prahalad Joshi, from the RSS cadre in Karnataka, took over as education minister.
AND a few stray thoughts on a furious Vishwaguru Narendra Modi because Instagram and Meta removed his video on reforms to the NEET exams. Even though the social media platforms restored them with the intervention of the External Affairs Ministry, Vishwaguru is very angry. The government of India has decided to file cases against Instagram and Meta. The real anger is derived from the fact that it was Instagram that Abhijeet Dipke used to create the National Cockroach Party.
 Dipke posted a powerful article on the formation of the National Cockroach Party from Boston in the United States, where he is studying mass communication and public relations. The post became viral and Dipke returned to India on June 7, to launch the “cockroach” students agitation from Jantar Mantar in Delhi. Dipke was joined by Sourab Das, a 30-year-old investigative journalist and Neha Bohra who is the president of the All Indian Students Federation, which is the student wing of the Communist Party Marxists. Neha fasted along with Sonam Wanchuk all through and broke her fast against the hand of Shabana Azmi. What is significant about the successful NCP movement is that it is being led by educated elite English speaking youth and not regional language educated “vernac” youth.
Dipke is from a middle class Maharashtrian family from Aurangabad which is now named Sambaji Nagar by the BJP. Neha is a research student in the University of Delhi and president of the All India CPM Students Union. The 42-days Jantar Mantar agitation attracted people from all over the country. Not just students but their parents also. In Goa the local co-ordinator who organized the protest meetings in Panaji Azad Maidan, the Lohia Garden in Mapusa, and the Lohia Maidan in Margao, is Amreen Shaikh. Amreen Shaikh passed out of the Dhempe College of Arts and went on to do a Master’s in history at Goa University. Working closely with Prajal Sakhardande and Heta Pandit, she organized her own company offering heritage tours. The young 26-year-old is passionate about Goan heritage. She told us that she had no political affiliation. That the protestor demanding freedom for jailed JNU activist Umar Khalid had infiltrated the meeting at Mapusa and Panaji and were not part of the students’ protest in empathy with protest at Jantar Mantar.
Presumably, is Amreen Shaikh is a Muslim; the Pramod Sawant government and the BJP President Damu Naik have been trying to implicate her in a conspiracy case linked to Umar Khalid. Amreen told us that till the police started harassing her, she had not even heard of Umar Khalid. She is clear that she has nothing to do with Umar Khalid. Her only interest is accountability in the education system. We are confident that civil society in Goa will rally behind her. I request the travel and tourism industry to extend support to the heritage tour company.

SC: RELEASE STUDENTS
AND a few stray thoughts on the Supreme Court of India order on Tuesday, July 28 to the Central and all BJP-ruled state governments to immediately release protesting students. Many hundreds of students were arrested from Jantar Mantar and from BJP-ruled states like West Bengal, Bihar, UP, Maharashtra and Goa. The SC, however, put a condition saying that those against whom First Information Report (FIR) has been registered need not be released. The claim of the government is that anti-social elements, who were identified through face recognition software, had attacked the police. Saurabh Das of the NCP insists that this is just allegations and the government has to prove that those who were arrested are convicted criminals.

PROTEST OUT POLICE STATIONS
THE NCP has made it clear that if all the student activists are not released, they will protest in front of the police station in every state including capital Delhi. Apparently, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam and Maharashtra had started withdrawing the FIRs in accordance with the agreement reached by the NCP with BJP Health Minister JP Nadda. But in Goa it is yet uncertain if the FIRs filed against the thousand plus protesters at the Azad Maidan, including those against Sandra Pereira (president of Uzwad), and Amreen Shaikh (general secretary who organized this protest), has been withdrawn.
The NCP has warned the Goa government about the delay in withdrawing the FIRs and the continued harassment of protestors. We understand that the police even raided the homes of Sandra Pereira and Amreen Sheikh. Civil society in Goa, including Justice Ferdino Rebello and the Goa Foundation have rallied around Amreen Sheikh.

NEW EDUCATION MINISTER JOSHI
AND a few stray thoughts on the new Education Minister Prahalad Joshi, who is from the RSS cadre in Karnataka. Prahalad Joshi is the president of the BJP in Karnataka. The Leader of the Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, has described Prahalad Joshi as a “defender of rapists.” The accusation stems from an older controversy over the Bilkis Banu case. Apparently, Prahalad Joshi defended the remission and release of 11 convicts who had brutally gang-raped Bilkis Banu. Prahalad Joshi has denied the allegation. Bilkis Banu was 21-years-old and five months pregnant during the 2002 post-Godhra riots in Gujarat allegedly instigated by Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. Bilkis Banu was allegedly raped on March 3, 2002 by a mob, along with 14 members of the family who were attacked.
 In the mob attack, seven members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter, were killed. The case was transferred from Gujarat to Maharashtra. In 2008, a Mumbai special CBI court convicted 11 men and sentenced them to life imprisonment. However, August 15, 2022 the Gujarat government prematurely released all the 11 convicts after completing 14-years on jail. The SC ruled against their early release and pointed out that the Gujarat government did not have the authority to release the prisoners. The case is a landmark case to do with justice to victims of sexual and communal violence.

CONTROLLER OF CRP
AND a few stray thoughts on the Central Reserve Police, which is controlled by Amit Shah, the Home Minister of India, who admitted that pellet guns were used against the student protestors in Jantar Mantar. These are special guns which fire small metallic bullets which do not kill but cause severe injuries. They were first used in Kashmir and later in Assam and Manipur. Both “India Today” and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi showed pictures of protestors with pellet injuries, including one protester whose eyes were damaged. The police have also admitted that one of their special task force cops fired an AK47 at protestors in Bihar. Several videos surfaced of the slapping and molestation of young women protestors. There is even a video of policemen trying to push a lathi into the private part of a young protestor. The SC has ruled that it is illegal to used lathis, guns and tear gas on peaceful protestors. The court headed by the chief justice who ironically allegedly called students “cockroaches” has ordered an enquiry into the police brutality against protestors in Jantar Mantar and the rest of the country.

WHO WANTS TO STUDY ENGINEERING IN GOA?
AND a last stray thought on how apparently nobody wants to study engineering in Goa. After the implementation of the economically weaker section quota, the number of engineering seats in the seven engineering colleges has crossed 2,000. The weakest engineering college has always been the Rayu Engineering College set up by the present Water Resources Minister Subhash Shirodkar. Shirodkar has decided to shut down the Rayu engineering college as nobody wants to join the college. Even though the CM is willing to offer a discount of 50% in fees even in the private colleges.
Despite Goans boycotting engineering colleges, the government has permitted the Maharashtra Institute of Technology, which is starting the peaceful university in Thivim, to start several engineering courses. The Pramod Sawant government has gifted Rs34crore to the MIT college for skilling Goan students. Never mind that students are not even going to the government Indian Institute of Technology because of poor standards and lack of courses which will provide them with government jobs.

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