The two-day lightening strike by Government and private doctors in Bihar, following the abduction of orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Bharat Singh by suspected extortionists, is only the latest instance of lawlessness in the eastern badlands of India. The almost simultaneous arrest of a CPM activist in a scandal of alleged rape and assault on a marriage party in West Bengal has taken the sheen off another honourable ally of the Congress party at the Centre.
Both instances are serious enough to warrant street level agitations against the respective State Governments for their failure to protect the lives and honour of ordinary citizens. Were Congress the main opposition party in either State, it would have demanded the imposition of President’s rule in both. It would also have demonstrated its contempt for both regimes with high voltage decibels and public demonstrations.
Not so the BJP. In Bihar, Mr. Sushil Modi is renowned for his armchair leadership and allegedly cozy relationship with RJD leader Laloo Yadav. In West Bengal, the BJP state leadership is celebrated for its near invisibility on the political spectrum. It is a crying shame that the BJP central leadership should tolerate the complete failure of the local units to articulate the anguish of people in both states. A senior party leader should be dispatched to Patna and Kolkata forthwith, and effect immediate changes in the local units.
It is understandable that Mr. Venkaiah Naidu should wish to concentrate his energies upon states going to the polls this year. However, if he wishes to realize his ambition of the BJP winning a majority on its own in the general elections of 2004, he cannot afford to ignore popular sentiments anywhere. In fact, states with unpopular regimes and where elections are not on the anvil can provide an ideal environment for the BJP to strike roots if it proves responsive to the concerns of the common man there. It would therefore be a grievous mistake to leave the local units of such states in the charge of leaders lacking the vision and tenacity to lead a grassroots movement.
Bihar under the Yadav couple is witnessing the growth of anarchy in algebraic proportions. Only last Saturday, the banned Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) beat two persons to death in Gaya, according to the district Superintendent of Police, Ravindran Shankran. At the same time, the daylight killings of innocents in so-called police encounters have ignited public rage as never before. The extortion industry is in full bloom, and as demonstrated in the case of Dr. Bharat Singh, concerted public pressure on the Chief Minister and RJD chief can bring about the miraculous release of the abducted person, unharmed. This growing public perception that the state administration can directly communicate with underworld goons, is no small indictment of the Rabri Devi government. Clearly the iron is hot; the question is whether the BJP is willing to strike.
The state BJP joined the protest against the police killings. But the party has by and large not stood by the people on all issues attracting public odium against the government. This is most apparent in some high profile cases of crime against women. The first is the abduction and ‘nikah’ of a married woman, Ms. Kanchan Misra, by a notorious gangster, Sultan Mia, who enjoys the backing of powerful RJD leaders. Her family members told the National Commission for Women that they feared for their lives.
But despite a strong directive from the NCW, the Rabri Devi government has taken no steps to produce Kanchan Misra before the Commission, and the lady continues to languish in illegal custody because the family is too poor to approach the courts for redressal. If the NCW ultimately fails to provide relief to the abducted woman and her family, the National Commission on Human Rights must step in without further delay. I must add that I am amazed at the studied and sustained silence of women’s rights groups and human rights activists, not to mention the mainstream media, in this case.
Another controversial case involves Ms. Champa Biswas, the wife of a senior IAS officer, who was repeatedly raped over a period of three years by one Mritunjay Yadav, son of an RJD MLA, Hemlata. Recently, the Patna district and sessions court sentenced Mritunjay Yadav to ten years rigorous imprisonment for the crime. Hemlata was let off as she had already spent three years in jail pending trial.
The verdict has understandably left the victim dissatisfied, as she feels that the mother had encouraged her son to rape her (Champa). She also feels that the court did not take due cognizance of her allegations against prominent RJD bigwigs who, she alleges, raped her between 1995 and 1997. Champa’s ugly ordeal, which includes the alleged rape of other women members of her family and her maid, as also her own abortion and forced sterilization, have been widely reported in the press and make depressing reading. Throughout this torment, the Biswas family was friendless in Patna as neither the State Home Secretary nor Director General of Police would agree to take up the matter. It was only when the family moved to Delhi that it could approach the National Human Rights Commission, the SC/ST Commission and the then Bihar Governor Mr. S.S. Bhandari, who took the matter up with the Union Home Ministry.
During the trial, three witnesses went ‘missing’ and a key prosecution witness, Kalyani Biswas, died in mysterious circumstances, but the Patna Police did not even register a case! In such a scenario, it is truly commendable that the prosecution managed to secure a conviction of the principal accused. At the same time, one cannot but agree with Champa Biswas that justice will only be partial until the other powerful persons who oppressed her are punished. In this situation, for Mr. Sushil Modi to suggest that it is the job of the (disinclined and disinterested) women’s organizations to take up cudgels on Champa’s behalf is quite reprehensible. A political party cannot shun responsibility so lightly.
Neighbouring West Bengal, meanwhile, has been shaken by an armed gang that attacked two buses carrying a marriage party, shot dead a bus driver who resisted them, looted the passengers at gunpoint and allegedly gang-raped several young women. The incident occurred in Nadia district, and the same gang probably looted two other cars the same day.
As the arrested persons included a CPI-M worker, the local party unit rushed to the defence, claiming the activist was being framed due to a verbal dual with the district police superintendent. As the Bangladesh border is barely sixteen kilometres away, it is being speculated that the culprits may have come from there. If so, we may be in for a spate of such crimes against unarmed civilians in coming days, as Bangladesh expresses hostility to India’s pressure against illegal immigrants.
So far, the state BJP has been fairly somnolent. It would do well to seize the initiative and form citizen’s vigilance committees in border villages and highways to face any planned atrocity. Else, more Indian citizens may suffer the fate of the sixteen Border Security Forces’ jawans in April 2001. Bangladesh, we must acknowledge, is as unfriendly a neighbour as Pakistan.
The Pioneer, 11 February 2003