The History of Bihar,for more than two
decades, is replete with massacres. Massacres of rural poor of dalit castes by
various landlord armies. In their desperate bid to suppress the ever growing
rural poor uprising and to hold onto their caste-class privileges, the new
classes of landlords and kulaks have frequently took recourse to this terror
tactics as a means to terrorise the whole mass of people. Yet the massacre at
Laxmanpur-Bathe of Jehanabad on the night of 1 December is a case apart and it
rightly shook the conscience of the nation in the 50th year of Indian
independence.
In all 61 persons — two thirds of whom were children, women and old persons
— were butchered to death in a cold-blooded operation at the dead of night.
All the victims belonged to the class of agrarian labourers and were dalits in
the social hierarchy. In their struggle for socio-economic emancipation they had
taken up the revolutionary banner of the CPI(ML).
The killers were men of the Ranvir Sena — an upper caste landlord army
which enjoys the political backing of the BJP as well as support from a section
of the RJD.
This time the target chosen was a village in Jehanabad that lies close to the
districts of Bhojpur, Patna and Aurangabad. The essential purpose was to send
the message across the whole of central Bihar. The time chosen was significant
as the political crisis at the centre had matured and a caretaker government was
in office. Thus, by effecting an upper caste mobilisation of both Bhumihars and
Rajputs, it also symbolised the beginning of the political offensive by
arch-reactionary forces. As reports suggest, this was first of the trilogy of
massacres before the elections. The other two are planned in the districts of
Rohtas and Buxar.
The whole operation was meticulously planned. Professional killers were
assembled from all neighbouring districts apart from Jehanabad. To create a
record and grab the international news headlines, the number of persons to be
killed was predetermined with the specific targeting of women and children. For
a smooth operation, a soft target was selected where people were most
unsuspecting, most unprepared and thus chances of resistance was zero.
The record was indeed created not only in terms of numbers but also in the
measure of brutality and cowardice. Side by side, another record was created by
the media, particularly in Bihar, which excelled in hypocrisy. Since day one,
Sangh Parivar propaganda machinery swung into action and the media began playing
to its tune. A prominent journalist from Patna wrote in a national daily that it
was the same old story of clash between Ranvir Sena and Naxalites, the only
difference being that this time Naxalites were unarmed. How cleverly the
cold-blooded massacre of women and children was rationalised as a routine kind
of confrontation! The same journalist in subsequent writeups tried to
rationalise Ranvir Sena as an expression of peasant’s anguish against
indiscriminate Naxalite violence. This typical attitude was common to the entire
upper caste journalist fraternity barring a few exceptions. The long list of
upper caste villages supposedly under the threat of Naxalite revenge were boldly
displayed in newspapers and cock-and-bull stories of PWG squads entering into
Jehanabad were dished out. The news analysis that began with Laxmanpur-Bathe
invariably ended up with concern over general deterioration of law and order and
demands for action against Naxalite extremists who dare to run parallel
governments and even attack the police. The news of protests were underplayed
whereas the fast by BJP leaders and Vajpayee’s visit was overplayed. All this
was a well-orchestrated move to divert public attention from Ranvir Sena, from
its organic links with the BJP and pressurise the state administration to divert
its operations against the victims themselves.
It was the age-old story of pen against people with the only difference that
this time the pen was directly attached to the bayonet! It goes without saying
that the state machinery was too eager to oblige the ‘pen-killers’ and after
a token operation against Ranvir Sena — more on paper than on the field —
the entire thrust has been diverted against people’s forces on the pretext of
preventing any revenge.
Still the machinations of the whole range of mercenaries is not the last word
in the rural poor’s march to liberty. The protest is growing fast and assuming
larger dimensions.
On 5 December, the left and democratic alliance of 17 parties called for a
Bihar Bandh. Incidentally the bandh was the first one after the Supreme
Court’s infamous verdict imposing a blanket ban on all bandhs. The bandh was
supported by a host of other democratic forces and it was an astounding success.
The massacre was condemned by progressive public opinion all across the country
and even abroad. Many prominent intellectuals joined the protest.
The massacre has generated immense class hatred among rural poor,
strengthened their determination to close their ranks, and led to the growing
realisation of going over to offensive actions as the best way of defence. The
Party’s rally in Arwal proved to be a grand success. Battle cries against
Ranvir Sena rent the air. Thousands of young people were seething with anger and
went back with the resolve to take the battle to the enemy’s own ground.
With the advent of Ranvir Sena, the class war is no longer confined to this
or that region of Central Bihar any more. It is engulfing the entire central
Bihar. This has also created conditions for forging a broader class unity, a
unity cemented by blood. The class war is also making irrelevant the false god
of social justice, Laloo Yadav, who in his earlier incarnation had encouraged
the growth of Ranvir Sena as a Machiavellian plot to wipe out our Party. In
fact, it has turned into a Frankenstein for him and is threatening his own
social base in the changed political environment of BJP’s growing political
offensive. This has indeed created a favourable condition to effect a new social
equation on our party’s own initiative. The party has intensified its
offensive in various forms and in Bhojpur in particular certain actions, prior
to and after the Party Congress, has helped unleash the initiative at the
grassroots.
The challenge of Ranvir Sena, the perpetrators of the ‘national shame’,
has to be met. In the concrete context of Bihar, the interests of the
revolutionary peasant movement as well as the national responsibility of halting
the onslaught of saffron army has merged into one and the same task — wiping
out Ranvir Sena.
The rural proletariat has been shedding blood for its socio-economic
emancipation and political liberty. It is our duty to organise people to avenge
the death of their class brethren and for that we shall have to undertake the
widest exposure campaign particularly in view of media hostility; do away with
all sectarian attitudes and unite all positive social sections and political
forces and raise our preparations to a higher level to deal a crushing blow to
this army of butchers, of cowards. This battle can surely be won and must be
won. This is the call of human progress, democracy and true nationalism. This is
the call of the modern times.