The ghastly incident of setting fire and looting a whole Mahadalit hamlet in Nawada has again brought to the fore disturbing fact that feudal criminal anti-dalit forces are strengthening themselves under the Nitish-BJP regime in Bihar, and, such criminals are serving the ends of land grabbers and mafia. On 18 September a criminal gang of one Nandu Paswan armed with firearms attacked Krishna Nagar, a dalit hamlet at Dadaur in Nawada district. Only one kilometre away from the local police station there are 80 houses in this village and almost half of them have been turned into ashes. All inhabitants, including women, children and aged, were forced to stay under the open sky after the attack. Their valuables and cattle were also looted. Administration was not quick to provide immediate help to the victims.

CPIML Bihar Secretary Kunal condemned this incident and demanded quick action from the government. He informed that a local team of party leaders led by Ajit Kumar Mehta and Sudama Devi reached the spot next morning and arranged food for the victims who had not eaten anything since the previous day. It is the administration’s apathy that the victims had to spend their night in the open.

The 80 households, which comprises 67 Musahar, 12 Ravidas and one Ramani family, are living on a 15.59 acres of land area. A small portion of this land is also under cultivation by these inhabitants. Nandu Paswan who is allied with local contractors and feudal elements, was eying for this land for a long time. He perpetrated the attack with intention to capture the land. 

A team from Patna led by ex-MLA and CPIML leader Manoj Manzil went to the affected village to take stock of the situation. The police reached the spot two hours late, although it was informed of the attack immediately. This raises suspicion of police complicity. A local resident Anil Manjhi, 34, died of a heart attack under shock of the incident.  The fact finding team found the administration was unwilling to register the death of Anil Manjhi caused by the attack. CPIML has demanded to file a case under murder charges against Nandu Paswan. The party has also questioned the role of the district officials and demanded action against the DM and SP.

Manoj Manzil told in a press conference in Patna that this particular incident is a result of rising morale of state protected land mafia. They are using the ongoing land survey in Bihar as a ploy to evict the poor from their lands. This survey has already become a synonym of evictions and bulldozer actions.

In the centre of this attack is a land piece of 37.14 acres which is a gair-majarua land. The district administration now is trying to divert the whole issue by calling this a raiyati land. Poor dalit families have been living and tilling this land for quite a long time. But during the previous land survey held in 1970s, an absentee landlord forged papers to get his name entered as the owner. Later, Nandu Paswan along with more than a dozen other persons transferred 16.59 acres in their names and started threatening the families living there. Although the dispute is now subjudice, the current land survey is used as a pretext to evict original inhabitants from this land. The land grabbers are trying to include their names as owners of this land in the new survey. Hence this attack and attempted eviction. This was repeatedly demanded of the Nitish government to implement land bandobasti on the lands where poor households are located for many decades or even many generations.

The Nawada attack is not an isolated incident, some day ago in Gaya 3 Musahar community members were killed. In Bakraur, near Bodhgaya there were attacks on mahadalit hamlets. Here eighty dalits having land pattas were being threatened by land grabbers and three months ago 31 of their houses were burnt down.  There have been many more such incidents in the recent past. In Tikari, feudals attacked and cut-off one hand of Sanjay Manjhi. In Khizarsarai, a rural labourer Sajan Manjhi was murdered for demanding his pending wages, and some days ago, Rajkumar Manjhi was beaten to death in Barachatti. There were many reports of rapes and other crimes against dalits.

The irony is that the cabinet minister Jitanram Manjhi himself belongs to this community and the crime has taken place in his own area of influence. Attacks on dalits by feudal criminal forces overtly or covertly backed by BJP, are on the rise.

CPIML held statewide protests against this incident on 23 September condemning rising numbers in attacks on dalits and women and warned the state government for adopting callous attitude in matters of rights and safety of weaker sections.

Comrade Kunal said that the CPIML will not allow this ongoing land survey to be turned into a land-grab campaign. Bihar government’s complicity is apparent, but we are committed to press for strong legal and administrative measures to secure the land, lives and rights of dalits and poor households.