By Imran Khan, IANS
Patna : As soon as the train from Mumbai stopped, hundreds tumbled out, in tears, recounting tales of horror from India’s financial capital and other Maharashtra towns from which they had been forced to flee by activists of a political party.
“We were targeted, attacked, beaten and threatened to leave Maharashtra. Our only crime was that we are from Bihar and speak Hindi,” said Pankaj Singh, who worked as a skilled labourer in Mumbai suburb Bandra.
“There was no option but to flee Bandra and save my life.” Pankaj’s 15-minute story gripped reporters at the railway station here and even moved policemen to offer him tea and snacks after they heard he hadn’t eaten for over 24 hours.
“I was going to withdraw money from the bank but people suggested that I catch the first train home. I boarded the first available train with hardly Rs.20 in my pocket,” said Pankaj, who hails from a village in Bihar’s Samastipur district.
The scene is the same at railway stations around the state where trainloads of Bihari migrants are returning home after a spate of attacks on them in Mumbai and other towns of Maharashtra by the activists of Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).
Surendra Yadav, 30, a graduate who used to work in a pipe factory in Nashik, recalls how he was singled out and virtually hounded out of his job.
“I was singled out for being a Bihari. My life was under threat there and I opted to get out from under the shadow of fear and threats,” he said.
Every face had its own story of robbed livelihood, forced eviction. Every storyteller had a circle of mute spectators around.
Mahendra Paswan, a labourer from Aurangabad, recalled: “When we were attacked, beaten and abused, neither local people nor police come to our rescue. We were helpless after the police also remained a silent spectator.”
“I can go without food but cannot risk my life in Maharashtra,” he said.
Like Mahendra, hundreds of migrants have fled Maharashtra towns with whatever personal effects they could gather.
On Wednesday, Nagma Bano, fleeing from Nashik, gave birth to a child in a tr4ain toilet.
“We were forced to flee despite the fact that my wife was having labour pains. She gave birth to a child in the dirty toilet of the train during our journey,” Mohammed Nazir, Bano’s husband and a labourer in Nashik, told reporters.
“We had no option after some Marathis, supporters of a political party, threatened us and made us return to Bihar,” said Bano, sitting in the toilet with her newborn child in her lap.
“Even a poor woman like me would never imagine giving birth in a dirty toilet of a running train but it happened to me. I was forced to leave Nashik,” Bano told IANS with tears in her eyes.
The story is repeated with every train that brings more people back home.
“First poverty forced us to leave our village in Bihar and migrate to Maharashtra. And now fear of violence and threats to life have forced us to return. This is our story, what else,” Nazir said.