Citizens Speak Out For Bathani Tola, Demand Punishment For The Guilty
By Kavita Krishnan & Uma Gupta
15 July, 2012
Countercurrents.org
On 11 July 1996, 16 years ago, 21 landless poor, mostly women and children
from dalit, extremely backward and Pasmanda Muslim communities, were
massacred by a marauding landlords’ army, the Ranveer Sena. Though 23 of
the accused were convicted for the massacre by an Ara sessions court in
2010, the Bihar HC in 2012 April acquitted all the accused.
Eminent jurists, advocates, academics, as well as activists, expressing
outrage at the recent acquittal of all the accused in the Bathani Tola
massacre case, have come together to form a citizens’ collective, ‘Citizens
for Bathani Tola.’
The Citizens for Bathani Tola held a Convention at Speaker’s Hall,
Constitution Club in the national capital today, demanding *‘Justice for
Bathani Tola 1996 – Punish the Guilty’. *
* *
*Bathani Survivors Recall the Day of Horror *
The Convention was addressed by Bathani Tola massacre survivors Sri Kishun
Choudhury and Naeemuddin Ansari, who also bore witness during the trial.
Sri Kishun Choudhury and Naeemuddin Ansari recalled that the massacre
happened in broad daylight, when the mob of assailants armed with firearms
and swords came to the dalit hamlet of Bathani Tola from the neighbouring
Badki Khadanv village. *Bathani Tola was targeted by the Ranveer Sena
because its residents had the temerity to vote for and support CPI(ML), had
waged struggles against the grab of Karbala land, and had even helped elect
CPI(ML) representatives on panchayat and MLA posts*.
Bathani Tola villager had repeatedly petitioned the police for protection,
in view of daily attacks and threats. In fact, there were 3 police camps
close to Bathani Tola as a result of the ongoing tension. Yet the police
deliberately turned a blind eye to the massacre. In fact, the police was so
biased that the three police eyewitnesses to the massacre deposed as
witnesses for the defence!
The assailants fired on people to kill them. Women and children had hidden
in Marwari Choudhury’s house – and the house was set on fire. Women and
children were cut down with swords, and women’s breasts were cut off.
Sri Kishun Choudhury and Nayeemuddin Ansari also mentioned how police and
prosecution (both in 1996 in Laloo’s regime and in 2012 in Nitish’s regime)
colluded to weaken the case. They know that the Bihar Government has filed
an appeal in the Supreme Court, but they say that they cannot trust the
Nitish Government to work for justice. The Nitish Government has disbanded
the Amir Das commission (set up to probe political linkages of the Ranveer
Sena), and gave bail to Ranveer Sena chief Brahmeshwar Singh. *So, the
Bathani survivors have themselves filed an SLP in the Supreme Court, and
the hearing for the SLP comes up in the Supreme Court tomorrow on 16 July. *
*Students from Ara On the Attack on Their Dalit Hostel *
*By Ranveer Sena Supporters on June 1, 2012 *
On 1 June, Brahmeshwar Singh, Ranveer Sena chief, was killed in the early
morning at Katira in Ara. On the same day, the Ranveer Sena supporters, in
addition to widespread arson and violence on public property, targeted
dalit hostels in Ara. This incident showed that state-protected feudal
violence is not a thing of the past in today’s Bihar.
*Shivprakash Ranjan, and Shabbir, residents of Ambedkar Kalyan Hostel at
Katira, which is near Ara’s Veer Kunwar Singh University, recounted the
incident and its aftermath at the Convention. *
They said:
Very early in the morning of June 1, Ranveer Sena goons, along with JD(U)’s
youth wing district president Naveen Kumar Singh, attacked the hostel,
raising slogans of ‘AK-47 Zindabad’, ‘AK-56 Zindabad,’ ‘A 100 lives to
avenge the death of one’ and ‘Ranveer Sena Zindabad’, and firing shots.
They began by setting students’ bicycles on fire and breaking the hostel’s
windows and doors. Terror-struck students initially bolted rooms and hid
under beds. For a full hour, there was arson and looting in the hostel,
with no sign of police.
When the police finally arrived, instead of stopping the miscreants and
protecting the students, they pressurised students to flee.
16 ground floor rooms were fully burnt, and belongings looted. 30 students’
marksheets, certificates, and other documents were burnt. 40-50 cycles and
3 motorcycles were burnt. Laptops, TV sets, gas cylinders, cookers, vessels
were either destroyed or looted. A bust of Dr. Ambedkar was vandalised.
The miscreants attacked the hostel thrice, but the police did nothing to
stop them or protect the hostel and its residents. Two other dalit hostels
– Chandi Lodge near Jain College, and another hostel at Maulabag – were
attacked, with firing and stone-pelting.
The students have agitated at Ara and Patna, with the help of All India
Students’ Association (AISA), demanding compensation for the losses,
protection from further attacks, rebuilding of the hostel at the earliest,
and action against the perpetrators of the attack.
The Nitish Government fiddled while the dalit hostels of Ara burnt. What
face does Nitish Kumar have to claim to oppose Narendra Modi – when he
himself has behaved like a mini-Modi? His Government promptly announced
compensation for those injured in an accident during Brahmeshwar
Singh’s shraddha ceremony, but is yet to announce compensation for the dalit hostel
residents.
The dalit students continue to face intimidation. Yesterday some drunken
youths came and uttered threats at the hostel. The same evening, when the
head of the State SC/ST Commission came to visit the hostel, accompanied by
the same JD(U) youth and student wing leaders involved in the attacks, he
faced the rage of the students. The students vented their anger at the
Government’s inaction, protection of perpetrators, and hypocrisy by
blackening the face of the SC/ST Commission chief, and garlanding him with
the same burnt chappals and shoes that continue to lie strewn around the
hostel.
*Jurists, Academics, Activists Speak *
*Prof. Nandini Sundar pointed out that Ranveer Sena and Salwa Judum are
examples of a “public private partnership”, wherein governments and private
militias conveniently collude with each other*. The “public” governments
wash their hands off responsibility, claiming that “private” bodies do the
massacres, while the private militias continue killing people in the
confidence that governments will never take any action on them. She also
pointed out that the Bathani Tola massacre is essentially political
elimination of those who pose a political and ideological opposition to
feudal forces.
Activist Vineet Tiwary presented a fact-finding report on the Amausi
massacre of Bihar; pointing out that in the Amausi case, 10 mahadalits had
been sentenced to death on very flimsy grounds. Very different standards of
justice prevail depending on whether the accused belong to the upper caste
Ranveer Sena or to the poorest mahadalit community
Comrade Simpson, an activist from Tamil Nadu’s Odukapattor Viduthalai
Munnani, spoke about the Paramakudi massacre of dalits in police firing
last year. His own brother Panneerselvan (age 45) was martyred in the
firing. He spoke of the caste bias of the Jayalalithaa government towards
dalits, and the difficulties in ensuring punishment for the police
personnel who indulged in the massacre of dalits who had gathered to
commemorate the martyrdom of dalit icon Immanuel Sekaran.
Tarique Anwar from Darbhanga, whose brother Nadeem Akhtar is being
victimized on false charges of terrorism also addressed the Convention. He
voiced his protest against the injustice meted out by Central agencies,
Central Government, as well as the Bihar Government’s refusal to protect
the rights of migrant Muslim youth.
A short documentary – ‘After the Massacre’ – by a young filmmaker Kundan –
was released and screened at the Convention. Patna’s cultural group Hirawal
presented revolutionary songs at the Convention.
Speakers and participants at the Convention included Justice Rajinder
Sachar, historian Uma Chakravarty, Prof. Tulsi Ram, Prof. Manager Pandey,
Prof. Nandini Sundar, Prof. Kamal Mitra Chenoy, journalists Anil Chamaria,
Rameshwar Prasad (former MP from Ara), Satya Sivaraman, poet Manglesh
Dabral, artist Ashok Bhowmick who designed a poster for justice for Bathani
Tola, Vikas from Ramgarh in UP who spoke of dalits’ struggle for control
over land and several others. Expressing solidarity with Bathani Tola
survivors, they resolved to intensify the struggle to ensure that the
perpetrators of Bathani Tola and other massacres by Ranveer Sena, did not
go unpunished.
Addressing the Convention, Lal Nishan Party (Leninist) Secretary Bhimrao
Bansode from Maharashtra spoke of about the Khairlanji massacre and other
similar massacres across the country, in which the struggle for justice
continued in spite of the fact that courts, as a rule, meted out injustice.
Mangat Ram Pasla, Secretary, CPM Punjab, expressed solidarity with the
struggle of Bathani survivors for justice. Castigating the Nitish
Government for promoting injustice and patronizing feudal forces, he called
for a struggle to ensure that perpetrators of all the Ranveer Sena
massacres were brought to book.
Dipankar Bhattacharya, General Secretary, CPI(ML) Liberation, said that the
Ranveer Sena perpetrated massacres at Bathani Tola and Laxmanpur Bathe,
hoping to push Bihar’s struggle for justice and progress, backwards and
hoping to uproot the red flag from Bihar’s soil. But the red flag has
proved that it has the mettle to struggle in the face of massacres. It is
the feudal forces who, in spite of state patronage by the Nitish
Government, who today find their ground shrinking. That is why they
expressed their frustration by unleashing vandalism and violence during
Brahmeshwar Singh’s funeral procession. He congratulated the citizens for
standing alongside Bathani Tola’s and Bihar’s people in their battle for
justice.
*Citizens for Justice for Bathani Tola *
Filmmakers Anand Patwardhan and Ajay Bharadwaj, noted academics and public
intellectuals Bela Bhatia, Uma Chakravarty, Anand Chakravarty,
NandiniSundar, Anand Teltumbde, V Geetha, Tulsi Ram, Tanika Sarkar,
Nivedita Menon, and Manager Pandey, Simpson (activist of a Tamilnadu based
group Odukapattor Viduthalai Munnani), journalists Seema Mustafa, Anil
Chamaria, Jaspal Singh Siddhu, Satya Sivaraman, Kiran Shaheen, poets
Nirmala Putul and Manglesh Dabral, economist and activist Jaya Mehta, noted
critic and social scientist from Assam Dr. Hiren Gohain, Nirmalangshu
Mukherjee, PK Vijayan, Sanghamitra Mishra, and Uma Gupta of Delhi
University, Kamal Chenoy, Anuradha Chenoy, and KJ Mukherjee of JNU, Ashok
Bhowmick, painter and cultural activist, Sucheta De (JNUSU President),
Pranay Krishna and Sudhir Suman (Jan Sanskriti Manch), Chittaranjan Singh
(PUCL), and Kavita Krishnan (AIPWA).
*Contact numbers: Kavita Krishnan, 9560756628, Uma Gupta, 9868034224 *
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