By Manzar Bilal, TwoCircles.net,
Patna: He did not utter a word on Forbesganj police killings for first two weeks. But now it seems he is feeling the heat of the firing and subsequent growing uneasiness among the minority community for unsatisfactory action of his government. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is moving around to convince repeatedly that the culprits of the incident will not be spared. Earlier he would say: ‘I can’t comment on it’.
What has made him anxious that now he is not leaving any public meeting without saying that those responsible for the inhuman incident will be punished as soon as the judicial probe commission submits its report? Perhaps the wide though belated national media coverage of the gruesome killings of unarmed villagers of Bhajanpur including an infant and a pregnant woman, besides the united opposition attack on the JDU-BJP government for not taking action against police officers and not announcing compensation to the victims.
Nitish Kumar
While campaigning for Purnia by-poll on June 21, he, for the first time after the June 3 incident, said that his government will take strict action against the culprits of Forbesganj massacre and he repeated the same thing at the state level conference of JD-U Minority Cell on June 23 in Patna. He reiterated his words on June 27 in Patna while addressing NDA workers of Purnia Division (Purnia, Araria, Katihar, Kishanganj districts).
Did Muslim leaders of his party make him aware that the incident has left bad feeling among the community members and that anger is prevailing among them due to failure of government for not taking proper action against the culprits? Or did Chief Minister himself realize his fault and is now fearing of losing minority’ confidence who largely voted for him in the last Assembly election?
Whatever the reason for change of his attitude towards the incident it is clear that he is now in defensive position.
It should be noted here that perhaps the incident would have been buried like many similar incidents happening time to time in the country as initially it was not reported by mainstream media properly but thanks to the intensive reports by TwoCircles.net mainstream media were forced to highlight the issue.
The Chief Minister did not utter a word of regret over the brutal killing of four poor Muslims by the police leave alone action against the responsible police officials and compensation to the victims because it was an indifferent incident in his sight.
The incident took place on June 3, 2011 in Bhajanpur village of Forbesganj in Araria district of Bihar when poor villagers were protesting against the blockade of their road by an upcoming factory. Despite being in the state, Nitish Kumar did not bother to visit himself or send any minister or party leader to the spot to condole the affected people.
After coming under fire from Oppositions, Nitish Kumar ordered a judicial inquiry and left for week-long China tour. After coming back from China, he issued notification for constitution of the judicial commission right after 15 days his cabinet approved the decision for judicial probe into the incident.
What Chief Minister has done so far is giving Rs. 3 lakh to the family of infant Sahil who was killed in the incident and jailing home guard Sunil Yadav who stomped at half-dead body of Mustafa Ansari. But he did not bother to give compensation to all victims and take actions against the officials present at the spot despite constant demand from political parties as well as social groups.