THE recent groping of a young girl accompanying her classmate to visit a scenic spot, in broad daylight in Jamui, filming the most shameful act on mobile and uploading it, has made the blood of every sensitive Bihari boil and ask the govt whether the state is being driven towards Maha-Jungle Raj.

Nitish Kumar had time and again reminded the people of 'Jungle Raj' prevailing during Lalu regime, and he used to boast that during his regime women and girls could go anywhere freely even at night without any fear and sense of insecurity.

Though this incident has drawn nationwide attention due to wide coverage in print media, it is not an isolated incident. Series of such incidents have taken place in different districts.

One independent journalist Piyush Mitra has compiled reports of recent incidents from different reliable sources. A girl was abducted from Bihta just near Patna, and was brought to Lucknow, was raped and her dead body was found on railway track. Two girls were attacked with knives while they were going to appear in the examination. A girl was dragged unsuccessfully to sit on bike in Darbhanga. A girl who declined to go with her lover was murdered with knife. A girl's photograph was uploaded on social media, when she confronted, she was attacked with a knife in Sitamarhi. All such incidents occurred on single day. Girls are not allowed to love and to marry, take decisions regarding their own lives. She cannot marry, patriarchy and caste come in the way of the adult boys and girls to take decisions about their lives.

IS THIS AMRIT KAL?

And girls are more vulnerable than boys. Moral policing has become the norm. It is the girls who are blamed for their dress, for their openness and their presence in all walks of life.  But what is the attitude towards these incidents of the present-day BJP-led govt in Bihar? They dismiss them as stray incidents. One horror story after another is nothing but feathers of honour in the long march of "Amrit Kal". Police acts only when such incidents make headlines, otherwise they are brushed under the carpet. The cocktail of feudal and bourgeois culture has made the situation very complex and needs special attention by the progressive forces to address. The present regime has only one solution to strengthen patriarchy by conducting moral policing through RSS led organisations invoking age old ideas about women written in "Manu Smriti". When girls join hands with boys in raising issues of education, employment, they are branded as anti-nationals, Dimagi Naxals and against the cultural ethos of India. The Prime Minister takes offense when girls respond in his own language but does not discipline IT handlers of BJP whose misogynist remarks remain unchecked, rather get encouragement from the higher ups in the government. The people of Bihar will have to rise up to demand safety and healthy social and political environment for the women, girls, marginalised sections of the society, minorities and the people at large, to pursue their vocations enjoying the freedom and safety enshrined in our Constitution. It is the duty of the government to provide such an environment but it has failed miserably.

JOBLESSNESS AND FRUSTRATION

Since then, reports of such heinous acts have come from Samastipur and Muzaffarpur, you can go on compiling such incidents on daily basis without any end. The police do not act till it is not forced to. They decline to file FIR and act only when their masters want them to act. The wine and liquor flow from the porous borders of adjoining states and the entire police force has been instructed to stop this free flow which is very lucrative assignment for the police and the higher ups in the administration. Now the young college boys and girls have become delivery boys and girls to get easy money. Recently a girl studying in an engineering college, along with her relative, was caught at Patna junction in an AC compartment with large consignment of foreign branded liquor. So, the elites of Bihar can get their monthly quota of wine in their houses delivered at their doorstep but the poor and slum dwellers are regularly imprisoned for brewing and consuming country liquor. The ban of open sale of liquor has created a new market for more harmful narcotic drugs. Even the college going boys and girls are consuming such drugs. The hopelessness, unemployment, stress to excel in examination and general atmosphere of getting rich have all contributed to the atmosphere of lumpenisation of a section of society leading to sexual atrocities, harassment, rapes and other such shameful activities. But in this Maha-Jungle Raj there is silver lining on the horizon. The recent Gen-Z movement has brought the younger generation into the arena of struggle. Now they are questioning the govt for not only its various acts of omission and commission but are raising the issue of fundamental rights of education, health care for all and employment for all the able bodied educated and illiterate boys, girls, men and women irrespective of their caste and class. Students and youths of Bihar have shown their courage and chivalry in the face of brutal repression let loose by the Bihar govt on August 22. Boys and girls of Bihar will stand shoulder to shoulder with their counterparts in other states to fight the present state and central regimes.

A team of DYFI and AIDWA state committee members Com. Deepak Verma and Neelam Devi along with others visited Jamui and met the family members of the harassed girl and her friend and assured them to fight for providing justice to the victims. They gave a call to burn the effigies of the Chief Minister of Bihar and demanded the arrest of all the youths involved in shameful act in Jamui. Accordingly, effigies of the Chief Minister were burnt in deferent districts of Bihar.