People's Democracy

 

BIHAR

 

Bandh Underlines People’s Anger Against Regime

 

Vijay Kant Thakur

 

THE Bihar bandh, called for by the Left parties, on October 15 evoked unprecedented response on the day. It was organised to register protest against the murder of students in Madhubani and Jaynagar, police repression at Khagaria, Gaya and other places, rapes in several places, and the anti-people policies of UPA government at the centre and NDA government in the state.

 

Government offices, educational institutions, bus services and banks, among other institutions, did not work at most places on the day. Hundreds of people squatted on rail tracks in Madhubani, Darbhanga, Saharsa, Madhepura, Begusarai and other places, which affected the rail traffic.

 

The police barbarically lathicharged a procession at the Dak Bangla Chauraha in Patna, after it started from the CPI(M) state unit office, led by the party’s state secretary Vijay Kant Thakur. This left dozens of protestors injured.

 

The police subsequently arrested about 40 persons including Vijay Kant Thakur, CPI(M) state secretariat member Arun Kumar Mishra, state Kisan Sabha secretary Awadhesh Kumar, JMS state president Rampari, Khet Mazdoor Union’s state president Sarangdhar Paswan, Vaidyanath Jha of the Pensioners Samaj, and youth leader Gopal Prasad Sharma. They were forcibly lifted from the road.

 

The CPI(M) state office later received reports about the arrests in other parts of the state and of the response the bandh call evoked.

 

STUDENTS KILLED

IN POLICE FIRING

There was a police firing at Madhubani on October 13, which killed two students and seriously injured a number of people. This was in a sequel to the disappearance of a boy student called Prashant and a girl student of the Madhubani Public School in September 7. Prashant’s grandfather then lodged a first information report (FIR) in a police station while on September 11 the girl’s father, an officer in the Education Department, claimed that the girl had been kidnapped. The police then arrested the boy’s father and grandfather who were then sent to jail.

 

Subsequently, on October 3, a headless body was found near a culvert in Karma and on October 5 Prashant’s mother and grandmother recognised it as Prashant’s body. But the doctor doing the post mortem said it was the body of a 26 years old person while Prashant was said to be 17. The police then, on this very technical ground, refused to hand the body over to Prashant’s relatives. This enraged the local people.

 

On October 10, the people of Ader, Prashant’s village, staged a demonstration in protest and his mother and grandmother sat on a hunger strike in the District Collectorate campus the next day. Leaders of various parties came to the place, made speeches and demanded that the body be handed over to Prashant’s relatives. But the police and administration refused to concede the demand.

 

On October 12, thousands of students staged a demonstration on the same demand but the police resorted to lathicharge in order to discharge them. On October 13, the police came to the venue of the hunger strike, beat the two women and dragged them down the stage. The police cruelly beat up CPI state secretariat member Ram Naresh Pande, too, who was present at the venue.

 

If the police and administration adopted this kind of attitude, it was because the missing girl’s father belonged to the village of a senior police officer of Darbhanga and the latter was known to be standing with him. The girl’s father is in public perception a corrupt officer who has been accused of bungling in the mid-day meal scheme, students’ stipends and some other schemes. He has the backing of a leader who was formerly in the BJP and is now with the ruling Janata Dal (United).

 

However, at a later stage, both the missing boy and the girl were found safe and enjoying in Delhi where they had reached after having visited various places in North India. They had eloped at their will, even though both are minors. 

 

CM’S DWINDLING

POPULARITY

On the other hand, the Bihar chief minister, Nitish Kumar, is fast losing his popularity and he could address meetings only in the shadow of police guns during his Adhikar Yatra in the last one month or so. This happened so in Betia, Madhubani, Darbhanga, Begusarai, Khagaria, Jamui, Newada and several other places. Girl students in these stage-managed meetings were asked to remove their dupattas in the name of the chief minister’s security. Teachers were made to attend these meetings on holidays too. A number of people around the meeting venues were forced to come to the Collectorate premises under article 107 and then illegally searched. There were many attempts in which anti-socials were used to keep the people silent.

 

Corruption is at its peak in Bihar countryside. Panchayats have been divested of their rights. Bunglings are widespread in the MGNREGA, Indira Awas Yojana and public distribution system etc. Eviction of the sharecroppers has reached a new height. There have been increases in the number and ferocity of attacks against the weaker sections of society, particularly dalits. Women are facing increasing threats to their security. The corrupt and anti-social elements are dominating the scene with their money power and muscle power.

 

All this has created a lot of anger among the people against the JD(U)-BJP coalition regime. However, instead of addressing their concerns, the chief minister is busy coining ever new slogans. Mass movements are facing repressive actions. Media are acting as Nitish Kumar’s mouthpiece. 

 

It was in the midst of such a situation that the Left parties met in Patna, with Vijay Kant Thakur in chair, and called for a Bihar bandh on October 15.

 

October 14 saw a large number of torchlight processions, street corner meetings and effigy burning in thousands of villages and towns across the state. The growing support for the bandh call also compelled other parties like the RJD, LJP, Mahila Sangharsh Morcha, SUCI, NCP etc to extend support to the bandh call that was against the autocratic way of the Nitish government’s functioning as well as the corruption prevailing in the whole system of governance in the state. The success of the bandh is definitely an indicator of the people’s resentment against the regime.