The Hindu : Bihar murders find an echo in Delhi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 29, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Bihar murders find an echo in Delhi

By K. Kannan

NEW DELHI, JAN. 28. The murder of two prominent social activists, Sarita and Mahesh, in Gaya district of Bihar this past Saturday has been condemned by representatives of several non-governmental organisations who feel that the country has become unsafe for genuine action in the interests of the poor and the marginalised communities.

While a committee has been formed in Bihar to coordinate the movement to protest against the killings and a dharna has already been held in Patna, a protest meeting is being organised at the Gandhi Peace Foundation in New Delhi on January 31. An appeal to join the "Battle for Democracy'' has been issued by Prof. Jean Dreze of Delhi University. "What a tribute to the Republic of India on the eve of its 54th Republic Day anniversary! Two young warriors of light paid their tribute to the nation with their blood on January 24, 2004! No, not on the borders fighting with `enemies' but while educating their fellow countrymen and women to lead their lives with dignity,'' he said in an e-mail alert circulated to concerned citizens across the country.

In fact, that is what Sarita and Mahesh were doing for the past three years. In the villages of Gaya they were working among the backward castes and Dalits trying to redeem the pledge the people of India had made to themselves 54 years back but which was left, as Prof. Dreze pointed out, to rot in the backyards of power by the parties who have been the rulers all these years.

Condemning the killings, Prof. Dreze said : "Safe water, wholesome food, irrigated farm land, smoothly run primary school, a clean and healthy community life, this is the least we expect from a welfare state. Instead, we have seen the State abdicating its role leaving it to organisations and individuals like Sarita and Mahesh.''

And working on a modest scale, the two did perform their duties quite efficiently, clinching proof of which is the rain of bullets which drowned these young lives on January 24 while they were returning after a meeting with the villagers.

They had obviously disturbed the power equation of the countryside having educated the villagers living in Sabdo and its vicinity to the extent that they started to speak up for themselves, take decisions, manage their own land and school for their children, understand and articulate their rights which greatly upset the local mafia patronised by the ruling party of Bihar. They started threatening the duo, asking them to give up their work in that area.

"Sarita and Mahesh could have done that. Sarita's husband earns a handsome salary as the chief of Actionaid India, Bihar, and Mahesh came from a well-off family. Knowing fully well the gravity of the threats, they decided to stay on, pursued their work doggedly and the threat was made real by the bullets which cut short their <243>fearless journey towards light,'' Prof. Dreze said.

"This is a time for us as a democratic republic to grieve over the loss of the democratic space won for us from the British, which we see being snatched away from us by those who swear by the book we call our Constitution.

In Bihar, the macabre nature of the rape of democracy leaves you speechless. Seven years ago, it was the killing of Chandrashekhar who was merely exercising his right to speech and had to pay for doing so with his life, murdered in daylight by the henchman of a don who continues to adorn our Parliament. In Bihar, idealism is fatal, as was proved recently by the murder of Satyendra Dubey,'' says Prof. Dreze.

"Numerous killings, of not so prominent citizens of India in the land of Bihar for trying to secure for themselves and their community the rights which are theirs, guaranteed by our Constitution, have remained invisible.''

Asking whether political correctness prevents citizens from pointing fingers at the perpetrators of such crime, Prof. Dreze said it was "time to speak up for democracy in Bihar, to act for ourselves and to choose between political correctness and a truthful politics for democratic values".

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