Pura Killing and Forced Mass Exodus: Continuing Dalit Atrocities in Bihar

The Chief Minister of Bihar, Jeetan Ram Majhi, recently expressed his shock that a temple he had visited in Madhubani had been washed after the visit, presumably to ‘purify’ it after the polluting presence of the CM who is from the most oppressed mahadalit caste. If indeed the temple was washed with such a purpose, it is a highly condemnable and demeaning atrocity against Dalits, and a case must be filed against the temple authorities under the Prevention of Atrocities Act. Some of the CM’s own fellow Ministers have suggested that the CM was misinformed, and perhaps this is why no case has yet been filed against the temple authorities.

Whether the Chief Minister himself was in fact a victim of such an atrocity in this particular case or not, the denial of entry into temples and other humiliating atrocities and organized violence against Dalits continues to be an ugly reality in Bihar. And this raises the unavoidable question – isn’t the persistence and virulence of such atrocities against the most oppressed castes and labouring people, a telling comment on the character of the 25 years of rule by Governments headed by RJD and JD(U)?

Even as the Bihar CM waxed eloquent in the London School of Economics about the ‘Bihar Model of Development’ promoted by the JD(U) Government, hundreds of mahadalits of the Pura village in the CM’s own home district Gaya, have been forced to flee after the murder of mahadalit Arjun Majhi, to intimidate his brother Vakil Majhi and prevent the latter from filing nominations in the elections for the post of the President to the Primary Agriculture Cooperative Society [PACS]. The mahadalits of Pura village, Tekari police station, Gaya, have been forced to flee en masse, fearing a massacre by strongmen from the dominant community. The police are yet to arrest most of the named accused in Arjun Majhi’s murder, and have also made no move to arrest those who are openly threatening to massacre the mahadalits. What does it say about the JD(U) Government with a mahadalit Chief Minister, when a dalit man’s kin can be killed to punish him for wanting to file nominations for an election, and the dalits in the CM’s own home district continue to face the very real fear of a massacre?

The Bihar Chief Minister, following in the footsteps of his predecessors, has yet to visit Pura. He has called upon the villagers to avenge Arjun Majhi’s murder by voting to elect Majhi’s brother to the PACS post – oblivious to the fact that Majhi’s brother has not been able to file nominations in time due to the intimidation, and the evicted mahadalit villagers live in terror of a massacre if they dare to vote! Why has the Chief Minister taken no steps to ensure the arrest of the perpetrators of feudal violence and intimidation, and the safe return of all the evicted mahadalits? Why have the PACS elections not been postponed to ensure that they take place only when the mahadalits can participate without fear? Why no action against the police and district administration who are failing to protect the mahadalits from violence and intimidation?

The conduct of the Bihar Government over the Pura episode today underlines how Bihar Governments, police and administration, from the Laloo era to the present JD(U) rule, have colluded with the perpetrators of organized violence against the Dalits and oppressed castes. The RJD regime, and the regimes headed by Nitish Kumar and now Jeetan Ram Majhi, have paid lip service to ‘mahadalit uplift’, while in reality they have made a series of unholy compromises with the feudal forces on a material as well as a political plane.  

In the 1990s, the police and administration under the Laloo and Rabri Governments, failed to prevent the Bathani Tola, Laxmanpur Bathe and other massacres, and then proceeded to scuttle evidence in order to protect the Ranveer Sena perpetrators. Laloo Yadav openly declared his willingness to collude with the Ranveer Sena in order to counter the assertion of the poor and oppressed who rallied around the CPI(ML).

 When the JD(U) allied with the BJP came to power, Nitish Kumar’s first act was to disband the Amir Das Commission that was on the point of submitting the findings of its probe into the political mentors of the Ranveer Sena. The motivation was obvious – those political mentors included a large number of top JD(U) and BJP leaders, as well as some prominent RJD and Congress leaders. Nitish Kumar came to power on the promise of land reforms, including homestead land for the landless oppressed castes, and safeguarding the rights of sharecroppers. But, in another blatant act of appeasement of the feudal forces, the Nitish Government refused to implement the recommendations of the Land Reforms Commission it has itself appointed!

 The serial acquittals of the Ranveer Sena members convicted for the Bathani Tola, Bathe and other massacres, also exposed how the Laloo-Rabri and Nitish regimes alike had acted to protect the perpetrators and perpetuate the injustice against the dalits and oppressed castes. The Nitish Government further exposed its true character when it allowed the Ranveer Sena supporters to run amok and unleash violence on Dalits and on public property after the killing of the Ranveer Sena chief Brahmeshwar Singh. On Independence Day last year, Dalits in Baddi village in Rohtas were attacked by feudal forces. The Nitish Government refused to order a CBI enquiry into the murders of mukhiya Chhotu Kushwaha and CPI(ML) leader Bhaiyyaram Yadav by feudal forces.

 Prior to the 1990s, the feudal forces openly enjoyed political hegemony in Bihar. For the past 25 years, the RJD and JD(U) regimes have promised ‘social justice’ and ‘uplift’ of the oppressed castes and a change in the feudal order. The fact is that, behind the mask of ‘social justice’, these Governments have openly made common cause and compromises with the feudal forces. The landless, oppressed poor of Bihar however, have waged and continue to wage a courageous battle for dignity and justice.