AISA led JNUSU stands in Solidarity with the Struggle Against Escalating Feudal Violence in Bihar. JNUSU General Secretary, Com. Chintu Kumari Visits Ara

The JNUSU General Secretary Com. Chintu recently visited the Bhojpur district in Bihar in wake of increasing atrocities in the state on dalits, women, poor and the minorities. During her visit, she visited Veer Kunwar Singh University, which was in news a couple of years back when the goons of Ranveer Sena had burnt and ransacked the dalit hostels. She met the students of the Dalit hostels of this university and listened to their concerns which largely focussed on the continued discrimination and the lack of infrastructure they had to deal with. The following day, she went to Dumaria village as part of a solidarity fact-finding team; here she met the victims of the recent gangrape by a former Ranveer Sena area commander. She also participated in a seminar organized in the Veer Kunwar Singh University on ‘Feudal Communal Assaults and the role of the Youth’. On the last day of the visit, she participated in the united ‘Nyay March’ that took place in Bihar to protest against the increasing feudal-communal violence in the state.

In recent times, the increasing attacks on dalits, poor, women, farmers and minorities in Bihar expose the falseness of the JD(U) government’s self-claimed credentials of being the ‘saviour’ of the dalits in Bihar. On the eve of the elections to the Primary Agriculture Cooperative Society [PACS] in Bihar, Arjun Manjhi, the brother of Vakil Manjhi who wanted to contest for the post of President of the PACS was murdered in Tekari block by dominant feudal forces. Moreover, the land-owners-criminal gang nexus which orchestrated this murder has also been intimidating and threatening members of the musahar caste in the region for this ‘crime’ of Vakil Manjhi aspiring to contest elections. After the murder and subsequent intimidation, 300 mahadalit families of the Pura village fled from the village fearing their lives. On 8 October, in Kurmuri village of Bhojpur district, feudal goons led by a former Ranveer Sena area commander Neelnidhi Singh brutally gangraped 6 mahadalit women including 4 minors. For 24 hours after the incident, the local police refused to lodge an FIR. It was only after sustained protests and pressure by the local CPI-ML cadre that an FIR was finally lodged. Recently in Rohtas, a 12-year old child was literally burnt alive just because his goat had strayed into the fields of the feudal landlords of the area.

Ever since the BJP government has come to power in Delhi, the casteist feudal forces are feeling doubly boldended in Bihar, even as the entire state machinery including the police, bureaucracy and the judiciary fail to take any action and in fact ensure complete immunity to the perpetrators. On 15 October, a team under the leadership of JNUSU General Secretary visited the Dumariya village where the victims of the recent gang rape live. Two of them are aged 18 and 25, while the rest are all minors. The victims described their experiences of trying to get justice, and informed the visiting team that they were still being issued death threats. No security had been provided to them by the state.

If on the one hand there is a history of oppression, there is also a parallel history of struggles and resistance against feudal and patriarchal violence. Over the past few weeks in Bihar, there have been sustained protests all over Bihar against the escalating feudal violence. On 17 October, a huge ‘Nyay March’ was held in Patna – where a wide range of democratic forces joined to demand action against the perpetrators of the recent crimes, and an immediate reinstatement of the Amir Das commission so as to nail the political forces which overtly and covertly provide support to feudal forces such as the Ranveer Sena. The JNUSU General Secretary also participated in this rally. JNUSU appeals to the student community to strengthen the struggles for social dignity in JNU and beyond.