People's Democracy

AIKS, AIAWU Condemn Bihar Violence

THE All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and the All India Agricultural Workers’ Union (AIAWU) have strongly condemned the dastardly attack unleashed by the Bihar state government, in collusion with the local landlord lobby, on the toiling peasantry and agricultural workers. On May 16 afternoon, assisted by the local police, the landlords’ goons brutally attacked about 75 Musahar families residing on government khas land for many years and destroyed their houses. According to a statement on May 17, this attack took place in village Nimagaon near Lakshmi Chowk in Madhepur block of Madhubani district. The inmates were severely injured. The landlords’ goons and the police attacked the leaders of the AIKS and AIAWU as well as women activists who were present at the venue to stop the forcible and illegal eviction of these families who fall under the extremely backward and oppressed mahadalit section of the society. At that time, the AIKS and AIAWU leaders were participating in a jatha programme that had started on May 14 on the issue of implementing the D Bandhopadhyaya committee recommendations on land and other land related issues. The AIAWU’s Bihar state president and all-India vice president Sarangdhar Paswan and the AIKS’s Bihar state president Lalan Chaudhary as well as many women activists suffered severe injuries, including fracture.

It will be noted that the AIAWU and AIKS had been taking a jatha from Begusarai to Bhagalpur via Khagaria to highlight the problems of the landless and the tenant farmers, of the wages of agricultural workers, employment and the issue of land from May 14. the jatha is to culminate in a rally in Bhagalpur after a month, on June 14. On May 12, AIAWU joint secretary Suneet Chopra had inaugurated the joint convention of the AIKS and AIAWU on land Issues and employment at Patna, which had given the call for jathas. These jathas are covering some other districts also to highlight the same issues. AIKS joint secretary N K Shukla, who was present at the convention, is accompanying one of the jathas.

The AIKS and AIAWU have demanded immediate action against the perpetrators of the cowardly act of violence and against the police officials who colluded with them. They have also demanded that the 75 victim families must be compensated for the losses and the injuries suffered, and a time-bound enquiry must be instituted to bring the criminals and officials to book. Saying that they would not tolerate such blatant violations of the basic rights of poor and marginal peasants and agricultural workers, the two organisations have urged all their units as well as the other democratic forces to rise in protest against such acts of violence by feudal elements and their cohorts.