Nitish Kumar waters a sapling on the Patna College campus on Monday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Jan. 9: Chief minister Nitish Kumar today had to play the role of a teacher while delivering his speech at a function to mark the 150th foundation day of Patna College.

The moment Nitish, the chief guest on the occasion, stood up to speak, a few members of All India Students’ Association (AISA) gathered in front of the podium. “Bandh karo, bandh karo (stop that, stop that)” slogans greeted the chief minister as soon as he started speaking.

As police were about to act to tackle the situation, Nitish said: “Inko nada lagane dijiye (Let them raise slogans).”

Like a teacher, Nitish told the protesters: “But please do something apart from sloganeering. Even we shouted slogans when we were in the college, but that was not all. We had to do a number of other works, which is why we are here today.”

Nitish’s speech and slogans from a section of students countering his claims made the event an exciting affair:

Nitish: “Bihar mein vikas ki aandhi aya hai (There is a storm of development in Bihar).”

Counterpoint: “Bohot jald hum sab is aandhi mein udh jayenge (All of us would soon be displaced by this storm).”

Nitish: “We want students of Patna College to become professors.”

Counterpoint: “Vacancy ayega tab na (Let there be vacancies first).”

Nitish: “Humlog ped laga rahe hain pure Bihar mein (We are planting trains across Bihar).”

Counterpoint: “Hamare liye bas yehi kaam reh gaya hai (That is the only job we have now).”

Abhi Uday, the national president and the state secretary of AISA, said: “It was a good opportunity to raise our issues today. We are happy that the college has completed 150 years, but our issues have to be addressed. Let there be students’ elections first.”

Several students told The Telegraph that they did not like the way the AISA supporters raised slogans against Nitish, but they said the issues raised by the outfit were genuine.

“There are so many problems in the college. There are no teachers in the Urdu department. Two research scholars in the postgraduate department take our classes. We do not have a reason to be happy,” said Mohammad Ehtesham Zafar, a third-year student of Urdu (Honours).

“The hostel problem is another issue. There have been so many problems for such a long time, but no solution is in sight,” said Mohammad Nuruddin, a third-year student of economics.

Priyadarshini Narayan, a faculty at the postgraduate department of sociology at Patna College, said: “I do not understand why they (the students) reacted this way. I am sure a number of outsiders came in and created the ruckus.”