These students from Bihar initially nursed the feeling that their chief minister who is known to care for his people would take some measures and come to their help. But as it did not appear to be happening they turned restless. While several state governments have evacuated thousands of students from the city but over 11,000 students from Bihar are stranded here.

Stuck in the coaching hub of Kota due to the lockdown these students have started a protest against Nitish Kumar for his apathy in ensuring their return. They have resorted to hunger strike in their hostels, put up posters describing the Nitish government as deaf, dumb and blind. One student on hunger strike alleged, "Nitish government is bringing students from abroad, but they are not thinking about us. These double standards will not work."

Students are in a state of panic. They say; “It is a nightmare to spend a single day here without coaching and with critical problems like food etc.” The students find it difficult to get regular food. Some of the students are surviving on the mercy of the local people. The condition of the girl students has been quite vulnerable. With most of the girls leaving the hostels, the remaining are scared of their security.

Some of them have gone under depression. A student said; "I am mentally disturbed and want to go back home. I can't understand why our state government is not acting. My mother cries on phone and is very worried about my situation,"

Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot has discussed the issue with Nitish Kumar. But he was reluctant to accept his proposal. As this according to Nitish would violate the spirit of lockdown. If Gehlot is to be believed Nitish is reluctant. He is helpless since lakhs of migrant workers from their states are also stranded in different parts of the country. Gehlot even offered to cooperate in whatever way he wants. It is beyond imagination how could Nitish ignore the emotions of young and adolescent minds who are feeling depressed.

While Nitish tries to project an image of a committed ruler his government giving permission to a BJP legislator to take back his daughter from Kota who is also a student of a coaching institute has raised serious questions on his claim and integrity. He is being accused of being hypocrite and also a hard core sycophant of Narendra Modi. Even his party colleagues on condition of anonymity allege that he was indulging in this game to please Modi and Amit Shah.

More than 250 students from Rajasthan had left for their respective home districts till Thursday night. Eighteen buses carrying students from Assam and 31 with students from Haryana left on Friday. Nearly 1,000 students from Haryana left for home on Friday morning and about 400 students from Assam have started the journey towards their home state.

At least 13,000 students from Uttar Pradesh, 2,800 from Madhya Pradesh and 350 from Gujarat had already reached their home towns from Kota, which is known for its coaching centres to prepare students for competitive exams, in the last few days, he added. It is most unfortunate that Nitish is brightening his image at the cost of the plight of these students.

There is no denying the fact that Nitish has failed the state and its people. He has miserably failed to provide basic necessities to both the frontline fighters and to the common people. While Nitish shouts at the top of voice that he has been arranging the protective gears for the doctors and nurses and takes care of the needs of his people, the fact remain that most of the corona patients are dependent on the mercy of God. The so called premier medical hospital of Bihar, PMCH does not have ventilator. The plight of the patients could be understood from the fact that recently a young patient Ajit Srivastava, who had to undergo abdominal surgery died for want of ventilator.

Nitish and his health minister, a senior BJP leader, Mangal Pandey have been unmoved of the miseries of the patients. A senior doctor of Patna Medical College and Hospital alleged that they are supposed to get N95 mask, a personal protective equipment (PPE) kit and sanitizer. But are denied. He said; “we use HIV kits to protect ourselves while treating patients. We also wear one pair or two pairs of gloves for eight hours. We reuse the gloves by sanitizing them.”

The worst has been the case of PMCH. The superintendent of the hospital being the close aide and also by virtue of belonging to Nitish’s caste of Kurmi, has been acting in an arbitrary manner and does not care of hospital and the patients. At PMCH beds are not available for potential patients of corona, a source from the hospital told. The hospital also doesn't have a designated ward for symptomatic patients.

In the initial stage Nitish and his minister along with the health officials tried to conceal the facts. However in the wake of reverse migration of the labourers it got exposed. In fact Nitish government was reluctant to come out with the correct figure of the infected persons. An impression was being created that Bihar has managed to fight effectively the virus by following the rules and guidelines. It is an open secret that testing for the coronavirus in Bihar is low, creating pressure on doctors. The state has just one research centre that tests coronavirus samples, which are then sent to the western Indian city of Pune for a second confirmation.

It is a widely known fact that Bihar never had a sound and good health care system. The government hospitals are completely in a shattered condition. Poor people go to these hospitals as they do not have other way out. Bihar's healthcare system is staring at a total collapse if the coronavirus spreads widely within the community. Bihar has 0.11 beds per 1,000 people, which is way lower than the WHO mandate.

According to the recent census, Bihar has a population of 99 million people. However, it has less than 2,000 primary health centres and 150 community health centres to cater to such a large population. Bihar has consistently underinvested in its healthcare system in the past, leading to the proliferation of a network of private hospitals, which can only be accessed by the privileged.

On March 23, the superintendent of the Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH) requested to quarantine 83 junior doctors who were showing COVID-19 symptoms. The United Resident & Doctors Association of India claims that the doctors have neither been tested for the coronavirus nor quarantined by their hospital.

The double speak of Nitish is also discernible. While he claims that Bihar has managed to contain spread of virus, he has also been expressing concern about the danger of community transmission. It is really disgraceful that for his political gains he has been ignoring the dire needs of the common people. This was the prime reason that he did not respond to the numerous appeals to help migrant labourers in coming back to Bihar. Ironically instead of coming to the help of the people he said the flow of migrants at this critical time would defeat the very purpose of lockdown. He abandoned poor people from Bihar stuck in Delhi and other states during the nationwide coronavirus lockdown.

Election strategist Prashant Kishore had tweeted a video of migrant workers locked up, crying and requesting to be freed. Kishor blamed Nitish for the plight of migrant workers and called it a "frightening picture" of the state's handling of the coronavirus crisis. (IPA Service)