IAS officer Tina Dabi, who made history as the first Dalit to top the UPSC examination in 2015, has strongly refuted allegations that college students were detained in Rajasthan's Barmer for labeling her a "reel star". The controversy stemmed from a protest against examination fee hikes last Saturday.
The Incident: Protest, Remarks, and Police Involvement
The events unfolded on Saturday outside Maharana Bhupal College (MBC) in Barmer. Students were demonstrating against a hike in examination fees. During the protest, they expressed a wish to meet District Collector Tina Dabi. The situation took a turn when an official present at the site referred to Dabi as a "role model" for the students.
This remark was contested by some members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing affiliated with the BJP. They countered that Dabi was more "interested in making reels" than addressing critical issues. "The Collector is not a role model. If she were, she would have come here to listen to the demands of the students. She is a reel star, goes everywhere to make reels, but does not pay attention to our problems," they asserted.
Later, these students claimed they were detained after their demonstration concluded. This led to more students gathering outside the local police station, demanding the release of their peers.
Official Clarifications: No Arrests or Detentions, Says Administration
In an interview with NDTV, Tina Dabi dismissed the detention claims. She stated the protesting students were creating a "nuisance" by blocking the road after the fee hike issue had been resolved. Dabi clarified they were taken to the police station by her subordinates solely for discussions and to cool down the situation. "No one ever got arrested or even detained. They were taken to a police station... for talks and cooling down. They then left two hours later, and the issue on the ground was dead," she explained.
Senior police officer Manoj Kumar supported this version. He told NDTV that the police neither detained nor arrested anyone. "To calm the situation, we brought four boys to the police station and later told them to leave," Kumar said. He added that students later gathered demanding an apology, and senior officers resolved the matter through dialogue.
Political Reactions and Social Media Fallout
The incident sparked reactions from political figures and student bodies. Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi criticized Dabi on social media platform X, calling it "just another day of a bureaucrat being intolerant in India."
The ABVP also condemned the alleged action, posting on X that "arrests of students for expressing their views is deeply condemnable and strikes at the very core of democratic values." They questioned when freedom of expression had become a crime.
Responding to the online chatter, Tina Dabi attributed the social media storm to an attempt to tarnish her reputation. "The issue is alive only on social media. What is running on social media is just to malign and get some cheap publicity," she stated, emphasizing that the matter was settled on the ground.
