Three Events

Three events of the past few days have captured national attention.

The murder of Brahmeshwar Singh, who headed Bihar’s outlawed private militia of landlords (Ranvir Sena), in Katira Mohalla under Nawada P.S. in the Bhojpur district on June 1 triggered a violent backlash that started in the district town of Arrah and spread to even the capital, Patna. Formed in the early 1990s, the Ranvir Sena targeted Dalits in central and south Bihar at a time the Dalit cause was spearheaded by the CPI-ML (Liberation) and MCC; it was involved in more than 40 massacres, the ones in Bathani Tola, Laxman Bathe and Shankarbigha resulting in the killing of 100 Dalits and Muslims. The outfit targeted women and children in particular revealing its sadistic motivation. Only last April all the 23 men charged with the Bathani Tola carnage were released by the Patna High Court for want of evidence, and among them was Brahmeshwar Singh. At that time itself there was legitimate fear that Bihar would re-experience the massive caste violence which had rocked the State in the nineties. That is precisely what has happened with the Nitish Kumar Government caught napping.

Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev went on a joint fast at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on June 3 to highlight the issues of corruption and black money to which Team Anna’s Jan Lokpal Bill is intimately linked. The date was chosen to mark the first anniversary of the police swoop on Ramdev’s followers on dharna on the same issues at Ramlila Ground that led to the loss of one precious life. The PM came in for sharp criticism at the gathering by both sides on the subject of “coalgate” even if Ramdev explicitly sought to refrain from making a direct attack on any specific individual while Team Anna’s Arvind Kejriwal pointedly charged Manmohan Singh basing on facts furnished by the CAG report. The fast passed off peacefully and showed once again the general public’s persisting revulsion against mega-scale corruption backed by black money.

The extended session of the Congress Working Committee in the Capital on June 4 has been described, even by the party supporters, as a meeting that could have done much better than what little it achieved. The Congress President’s attack on political adversaries for making ‘baseless’ charges against the PM and Congress, and Manmohan Singh’s dismissal of the corruption charges levelled by Team Anna over “coalgate” were only to be expected. But there was no roadmap to go ahead and no listing of concrete steps to mitigate the people’s misery in view of the incessant rise in prices of essential commodities.

However, the majority of the participants did voice their sense of concern over the havoc the unchecked prices can cause to the party. This has been interpreted by the corporate-driven media as a call for vigorous pursuance of the agenda of economic reforms capped by the introduction of FDI in retail and aviation. Any move in that direction would be disastrous and further alienate the Congress from the people at large. Instead measures must be immediately initiated to ameliorate the hardship of the aam aadmi in particular.

Is anyone in the party leadership listening?

June 7 S.C.