Indian police beat students backing caste quota

KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - Indian policemen used bamboo canes on Friday to beat supporters of a government move to reserve more college seats for lower castes, a move that has caused widespread protests in the nation.

Television footage showed police chasing lower caste medical students, some wearing white coats, in the eastern city of Patna in Bihar state, hitting some who had fallen to the ground.

A policemen could be seen ripping banners held up by the pro-quota activists.

"Passions are quite high but we have the situation under control," Inspector General of Police Anil Sinha told Reuters from Patna.

Witnesses and journalists said around 20 demonstrators were injured while police reported seven policemen hurt in the clash.

Television showed an injured policeman with a bloody nose and medical students holding their heads after being hit by canes.

The government move to raise the quota for lower castes in India's top universities as well as in medical, management and engineering institutes will see nearly half the places reserved for traditionally underprivileged groups.

This has sparked widespread protests by upper caste students -- especially medical students -- who have to fiercely compete for limited seats in the highly-sought-after institutions.

There have been some counter-protests by lower caste groups, the one in Patna spilling over into violence.

Sinha said pro-quota protesters -- blaming the media for being biased by not highlighting lower caste views -- started the violence by attacking journalists.

"In trying to save the journalists, policemen got hurt and had to resort to a lathi (cane) charge."

Under pressure from both sides in the row, the government has set up a panel of cabinet ministers to look into how to increase the overall number of seats in higher educational institutions.

Analysts say such a proposal may allow the government wiggle room to go ahead with its commitment to increase the lower caste quota by 27 percent without reducing the number of places for upper caste students candidates competing on merit.

But anti-quota protests continue.

In the western state of Gujarat, hundreds of medical students continued to skip classes for the seventh straight day.

"We are not very happy about missing our classes every day, but it is the government that is responsible," said 24-year-old Alpana Bhatt in Ahmedabad, Gujarat's main city.

Though India has banned caste discrimination, the ancient Hindu system remains powerful and causes violence in rural areas.

In 1990, after the government decided to increase the quota for lower castes in government jobs, dozens of upper caste students burned themselves to death.

(Additional reporting by Rupam Jain Nair in AHMEDABAD)