CPIML General Secretary Comrade Dipankar Bhattacharya said in a press conference on 14 February that BJP backed feudal forces have consistently been conspiring in the Bhojpur region against the rural poor’s movement. They have killed hundreds of people in massacres and filed false cases against CPIML leaders. Incidentally, so far none of the perpetrators of innumerable massacres taken place during the 1990s have been brought to justice. This is quite unfortunate that the same feudal forces succeeded in a conspiracy which eventually led to the recent conviction of party MLA and agrarian workers’ leader Manoj Manzil in a false and motivated case. The people of Bihar will not tolerate such injustice and give a befitting reply to the communal fascist forces.
He further said that this injustice has a new perspective when the Modi government is hell bent in suppressing every voice of opposition, when MPs are being suspended in bulk from the parliament, an attempt was made to conspiratorially oust Rahul Gandhi from the parliament, and Chief Ministers like Hemant Soren are being targeted. Modi is attacking all parties and all political streams in the opposition. In the same manner Nitish Kumar has acquired a vote of confidence through manipulative tactics in Bihar Assembly and after ‘taking’ support from three RJD MLAs now reports are coming in that BJP-JDU people are harassing their own MLAs too! We must view the jailing of Manoj Manzil in this backdrop where democracy and dignity and rights of dalits and poor are under attack.
Comrade Dipankar further added that in today’s India we need many more leaders like Comrade Manoj Manzil who has always been on the frontlines of people’s struggles since his student days. He is the leader of Sadak Par School (School on the Streets) movement, he relentlessly led movement against CAA-NRC, he led many struggles of peasants and agrarian workers. The thought of the presence of this youth dalit and honest MLA inside the Assembly always terrified the BJP.
The jailing of Manoj Manzil was protested throughout Bihar on 14 February. CPIML activists and the general public came to the streets expressing solidarity with comrade Manoj. CPIML has also called for week-long protests in Bhojpur region against this atrocity and direct attack on the struggles of dalits and poor people. The party has also announced to challenge this sessions court verdict in the High Court.
CPIML central committee member comrade Manoj Manzil, an MLA from Agiaon constituency in Bihar, was sent to jail along with 23 persons on 13 February in Ara. He is convicted in a case which was politically motivated and utterly false. Party’s Bihar secretary and Politburo member Kunal has responded to this lower court verdict by saying that the voice of Bihar’s poor and dalits cannot be suppressed by conspiracies like this and the struggles and assertions of rural poor will reach newer heights in coming days.
Comrade Kunal said that just before the Assembly elections in 2015 comrade Manoj Manzil and many other activists of the party were implicated falsely in a case of murder of one JP Singh. This was a conspiracy. Just few days before this incident a very popular party leader Satish Yadav was murdered by the same BJP backed forces who conspired against Manoj Manzil. Sadly, the killers of Satish Yadav are still roaming free while Manoj Manzil is sent to jail. The BJP and local feudal elements in Bhojpur region were always afraid of rising popularity of Manoj Manzil and militancy of rural poor’s struggles.
