CPIML Bihar State Secretary Kunal and Western Champaran District in-charge and CC member Virendra Prasad Gupta released a joint Press statement and said that there has been no let-up in the repression unleashed on dalits and the poor under the BJP-JDU regime; on the contrary, such incidents are on the rise. Estate Raj is in place in Western Champaran even today and oppression of dalits continues unchecked. The oppressors enjoy the open protection of BJP-JDU.
Gaunaha came was much talked about 15 years ago in connection with the incident where an ADM was beaten up. On 17 July last, stooges of the Ramnagar Estate beat up dalit musahar people of Van Bairiya in the same village. The ADM had given land parchas to the poor against the wishes of the Ramnagar Estate. The dalit musahars tried to bring electricity in their Tola, but for about a fortnight the Ramnagar Estate stooges kept cutting the electricity illegally.
The dalits then went to the Ramnagar MLA (BJP), but the dalit woman MLA paid no heed to them. They then contacted CPIML leaders who in turn contacted the Electricity Department. 5 days ago the Electricity Department staff tried to restore electricity, but the Ramnagar Estate operatives drove them away. Then the SDO Electricity Department took initiative and arranged for electricity from the transformer at 5 pm on 17 July.
At 8 pm on the same night, Ramnagar Estate operatives, armed with rifles, guns, lathis and knives, attacked the dalit Tola. The thatched roofs of the houses were broken; rations and food grains were scattered; Lal Bihar Manjhi’s motorcycle was broken; casteist slurs and abuses were hurled.They caught hold of Dharmendra Manjhi and his wife Kumari Devi, Banhu Manjhi, Suresh Manjhi, Kaushalya Devi and Manager Manjhi and brutally beat them up.
After finding out the facts about this heinous incident, CPIML District leaders Mukhtar Miyan, Lalji Yadav, and Nand Kishore Mahto said that Ramnagar Estate operatives hold Van Bairiya village in the grip of terror. Poor working families are greatly oppressed by them. Nobody can dare to say a word against the ‘King’ and his agents. The writ of the ‘King’ runs here instead of the country’s Constitution even today after so many years after independence.
The CPIML enquiry team has demanded an FIR against the Ramnagar estate ‘Raja’ and his agents and their arrest. They have also demanded proper medical treatment for all the injured persons. It should be noted that the condition of the injured Kumar Devi, who is pregnant, is not good.
CPIML held protests across the Western Champaran District on 20 July 2020.
