ON June 13-14, 2022, the CPI(M) East Champaran district committee in Bihar organised a 2000-strong civil disobedience action at Motihari, to denounce the totally false implication of its leader, Rajmangal Prasad in a murder case. Rajmangal Prasad is a state committee member of the CPI(M), and in the 2020 Bihar state assembly elections he had secured 80,432 votes from the Pipra seat in the district but was narrowly defeated by a BJP candidate due to the rigged counting that took place in several constituencies in that election. 

On April 9, 2022, a habitual criminal connected with the land mafia, Raghunath Bhagat, was killed by some peasants, whose land he was trying to usurp. Nine people were arrested for the murder as per the first FIR(first information report. 

Suddenly, 13 days later, the second FIR falsely named Rajmangal Prasad and some other Party activists in the murder case. It is alleged that this was a clear conspiracy hatched by the BJP MP from Motihari, Radha Mohan Singh.

Immediately after this, over 5,000 people led by the CPI(M) gheraoed the Rajepura police station demanding withdrawal of the utterly false case on Rajmangal Prasad and other Party activists. When the administration and the police did nothing, the civil disobedience struggle was launched on June 13-14. June 14 this year, also happened to be the 24th anniversary of the martyrdom of the CPI(M) leader and four-time MLA, Ajit Sarkar of Purnea district. 

The June 14 agitation was addressed by CPI(M) Polit Bureau Member, Ashok Dhawale, state secretary and Central Committee Member Lalan Choudhary, Party leaders Ramashray Singh, ex-MLA, Ajay Kumar, MLA, Vinod Kumar, Satyendra Kumar Mishra, Ashok Pathak and Dhruv Trivedi, while Bankim Chandra Dutt presided. 

All the leaders came down heavily on the BJP-JD(U) state government and its police for falsely implicating Rajmangal Prasad and other activists. They also attacked the anti-people policies and communal conspiracies of the Modi and Nitish Kumar governments, called for intensifying people's struggles and the anti-communal campaign, and strengthening the Party and all mass fronts manifold. 

June 14 was a government holiday due to Kabir Jayanti, a representative of the DM, received the memorandum. Meanwhile, Lalan Choudhary gave a call for burning the effigies of the state government all over Bihar on June 20, on this issue.

Champaran is a historic place where Mahatma Gandhi launched his very first satyagraha of indigo farmers against the British rulers in 1917. In the evening, Party leaders visited the Mahatma Gandhi museum and library that commemorates that memorable struggle.

Bihar

CPI(M) Holds Rally Against BJP-JD(U) Bulldozer Raj

Lalan Choudhary

ON June 15, 2022, the CPI(M) Darbhanga district committee in Bihar organised a large public meeting and rally to condemn the bulldozer raj of the BJP-JD(U) state government, and for other burning demands of the people. 

Like many other districts of Bihar, Darbhanga has a glorious history of land struggles led by the CPI(M), AIKS, and AIAWU, in which several comrades have been martyred in attacks by landlords.

Recently, the administration used the bulldozer to destroy several houses of the poor at Jale in this district. A dalit named Upendra Das was murdered, yet no one has been arrested. Land and land titles have not been given to the landless. The Ashok Paper Mill and several sugar factories have closed down, throwing thousands out of work. The district is always badly flood-affected, yet no preventive or relief measures are undertaken. The plight of MGNREGA is scandalous. Constant price rise is breaking the backs of people. These and other issues were taken up in the protest.

The public meeting was addressed by CPI(M) Polit Bureau Member, Ashok Dhawale, Central Committee Member and state secretary Lalan Choudhary, Central Committee Member Awadhesh Kumar, and DSMM leader, Shyam Bharati, while Party district secretary, Avinash Kumar Thakur presided. 

All the speakers castigated both the state and central governments for their anti-people and communal policies and called for intensification of the struggle.

Later a rally was organised at the district collector's office. Discussion with the DM will be held on June 16 on the memorandum of demand.