People's Democracy

POLITICS IN BIHAR

On the Murder of Ranveer Sena Chief

Arun Kumar Mishra

IN recent days, Bihar has been praised sky high for its so called stories of development under the leadership of National Democratic Alliance (NDA), with the combination’s government  led by Nitish Kumar. One of the biggest success stories that the present dispensation in Bihar boasts of, is an improvement in the law and order situation. But the spate of crimes that have swept Bihar, of late, tell a different tale. It needs a closer scrutiny.

BENEFICIARIES

OF ‘DEVELOPMENT’

The NDA had promised to usher in a new era of peace and prosperity for the common men after the long spell of "Jungle Raj" under the leadership of maverick Lalu Prasad. Since then seven years have elapsed and now the rhetoric of development is not cutting much ice with the common men. They feel deceived and cheated. But the Left forces in Bihar were quite aware of the tactics of the feudal forces to have greater say in the governance of the state and that JD(U)-BJP combination provides them the best platform to unite and play a decisive role in shaping the economy and politics of Bihar in their favour.

Since then there is no looking back for them. It is the feudal forces who compelled the Nitish government to throw the Bandyopadhaya commission report regarding land reforms into the dustbin. Just after assuming the power, first thing the NDA did, was to dissolve the Amir Das commission which had been mandated to look into the political links of the leaders of the political parties with the dreaded Ranveer Sena and its organisers. The feudal forces who have transformed themselves into contractors, real estate operators and builders are the real beneficiaries of the so called development projects of Nitish Kumar and his NDA government.

They have formed a nexus with bureaucrats and corrupt bourgeois-landlord leaders to loot the money meant for the poorest of the poor in the state. So we have high level corruption in the implementation of the MGNRGEA, Indira Awas Yojana, widow pension scheme and even in the distribution of bicycles and cloths among the students.

On the other hand, those who speak against this corruption and fight on behalf of the deprived section of the society are done to death. The killings of two CPI(M) cadres, Comrade Yogendra Shah and Comrade Surendra Yadav, have been reported in these columns earlier. But it is amazing to know that the perpetrators of the crime are still roaming free. In fact, they are being protected by the high and mighty in the government itself. The killers of Surendra Yadav have the protection from Bijay Chowdhary, a minister in the NDA cabinet of Bihar. He belongs to the notorious Chowdhary family of Dalsingsarai (Samastipur) against whom the late Comrade Surendra Yadav had been fighting on behalf of the downtrodden people of that area. Even the chief minister, Nitish Kumar, who visited the area had had no qualms in meeting the criminals who are directly involved in the murder of Comrade Surendra Yadav.

Since its coming to power, the NDA has always sided with the feudals and the rich people. The government machinery has shown its biasness umpteen times. Whether it is Araria firing, Noorsarai lathicharge,Aurangabad lathichrage etc or its attitude towards the general democratic movement, it is always the same, brutal and repressive against the common people and soft towards the high and mighty.

Second in command in the NDA government of the state is Sushil Kumar Modi, the BJP’s face in Bihar. Modi played a nefarious role in the Rupam Pathak rape case and Araria firing where he openly protected the two high profile criminals belonging to his party. They are also fomenting communal trouble in minority dominated boarding areas to broaden their political base.

BRAHAMESHWAR’S

MURDER AND AFTER

The murder of Brahmeshwar Mukhia has totally exposed the brutal feudal face of the Nitish Kumar govenment.

Brahmeshwar Mukhia was a notorious feudal landlord and the chief of so-called Ranveer Sena that has been known for its brutality and the series of massacres of dalits and minorities two decades earlier. Recently, Mukhia was freed from jail for want of foolproof evidence against him in the Bathani Tolla massacre. Even the High Court chose to indict the NDA government of Bihar for not pursuing the case against Mukhia and his cohorts properly. However, soon after his release, Mukhia was gunned down in his native village when he was taking his early morning stroll. The news spread like the wildfire and a grand plan was hatched to show the might of the feudal forces. On the day he was killed, the entire Ara town was in the hands of the hoodlums. Government lorries and private cars were burnt down. The DGP was manhandled and he had to retreat in the face of the mob fury. Curfew was imposed in Ara town but it did not prevent the feudal forces from flexing their muscles on the second day when Mukhia’s funeral procession was organised in Patna, the state capital.

Surprisingly, the government first allowed the body to be taken from Ara to Patna with a lot of noise and then it allowed the funeral procession to pass through the main thoroughfares of Patna. From Danapur to Patna, it was free for all. There was no administration worth the name. There was destruction, arson and loot everywhere, while the police was seen as the facilitator of the wildest form of savagery witnessed by Patna in the recent past.

Since the release of Brahmeshwar Mukhia, the Left forces of Bihar --- the CPI, CPI(M), CPI(ML) , Forward Bloc and SUCI(C) --- have been demanding that the NDA government should move the Supreme Court against Mukhia’s release and pursue the case seriously, so that all the accused are punished. Now that Brahmeshwar Mukhia has been murdered, whatever the Bihar Police has found clearly indicates that he was murdered by some JD(U) leaders.

After the murder, two of the JD(U) legislators were being interrogated by the police while the chief minister immediately ordered a CBI probe. The murder of Brahmeshwar Mukhia has put the social coalition forged by Nitish Kumar to a severe test. With the backing of the BJP and other reactionary forces around Nitish Kumar, the feudal forces are up in arms to have their total say in running the government The last rite of Brahmeshawar Singh attracted the all the leaders of Mukhia’s caste, belonging to different bourgeois landlord political parties, to pay their last respect to him. The last rite was organised on a grand scale just to convey the message that the feudal forces are organised and that nobody must dare touch them.

In the meantime, it has come to light that a huge amount of 35 crore rupees is in the bank account of Ranveer Sena though it is a banned outfit. It raises the questions: why did the government of the day not confiscate the amount? What is the source of this money? What for it has been collected? Who contributed? All these issues must be investigated.

THE LEFT

DEMAND

Nitish Kumar is keeping mum and trying to divert the attention of the people by raising his pet slogan of getting a special status for Bihar.

On their part, Lalu Prasad and the Congress party are vying with one another to appease these feudal forces. They just want to fish in troubled waters.

But the Left forces have taken up the cudgel on behalf of the oppressed and downtrodden. They are demanding the following:

(1) All the murderers of Yogendra Sah (Madhepura), Surendra Yadav (Dalsingsarai) and Bhaiyaram Yadav (Rohtas) must be brought to book.

(2) The Bathani Tolla massacre case must be pursued in the Supreme Court.

(3) Repression against democratic movements must be stopped.

On June 15, the CPI, CPI(M), CPI(ML), SUCI(C), RSP and FB organised dharnas at district headquarters to highlight these demands. The Left parties have decided to carry on vigorous campaigns against the regrouping of the feudal and communal forces, and to unleash relentless struggles by mobilising the common people on different socio-economic issues affecting them.