Keeping the Bihar Assembly election in mind, the BJP is vitiating the atmosphere of social harmony and escalating its attempts to create communal discord.
One such attempt was made on 13 August on the occasion of Krishna Janmashtami in the name of immersion of the idol. A CPIML fact-finding team visited the site to enquire into the details of the incident.
The first Krishna idol which had been installed at the Sitamarhi Paktola Hanuman Mandir was taken in procession at 4 pm accompanied by people armed with swords, spears and lathis. Before people could understand what was happening, the procession entered a forbidden area, but turned back when people standing on the roads took initiative and objected. One of the persons who took initiative, Laxmi Sah, told the procession that no idol or Muharram procession is taken on this road; by doing so you are violating a mutual agreement reached by ancestors of both communities. The youths in the crowd turned back and came to the main road of the village.
Just then the idol procession from the Darbhanga area led by Bajrang Dal member Tannu Rai was brought there from another road; this was unexpected, as it had never before taken this route. Taking advantage of both the processions converging at one place, Tannu Rai threw a rock into the Masjid on the main road and tried to incite passions. The local people took initiative and prevented a major incident. When he failed in this attempt, Tannu Rai joined with local BJP activist Nageshwar Gupta and Bhumihar Brahmins and led a crowd which stood at Mahdayi Chowk and started beating up passers-by after identifying them as belonging to a particular community and chasing and hunting them down if they tried to escape. They continued this dance of anarchy for 2 kms till radhi Chowk when the Jaley Thana police patrol reached the place.
The local people informed CPIML leader Niyaz Ahmed Siddiqui of this incident, who informed the Sitamarhi Police Superintendent and Pupri Police Dy. Superintendent by phone. The administration led by the DSP came to the spot and drove back the rioters. A case was filed at the complaint of one of the riot victims at Madhayi Chowk (Case No. 120/20)and 5 persons were arrested. Of the arrested persons, 2 Backward/Very Backward caste people were arrested while 3 Bhumihar Brahmins were let free at the behest of the local BJP MLA.
Meanwhile, the Sitamarhi Nanpur Thana arrested 9 persons from both sides (4 Muslims and 5 Dalit/Backward Hindus). But the main accused Nageshwar Gupta (who had earlier also tried to incite riots in the name of cow theft) was neither arrested nor was a case filed against him. These days BJP members are frequently trying to incite riots and the real faces behind these attempts to vitiate social harmony would be exposed if the role of the local MLA is probed and his call details on the said date are investigated.
The CPIML enquiry team comprised Dr Umesh Prasad Sah, Devendra Kumar, Lalan Paswan, Mithilesh Rai and Niyaz Ahmed Siddiqui.
