Even as LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan courted arrest in Delhi while staging a protest against the June 3 police firing on poor Muslims in Bihar’s Forbesganj, the BJP on Tuesday charged the state’s Opposition parties with unduly adding communal colours to a “mere clash” in which four people were killed.
A day after meeting the relatives of the people killed and injured in the police firing, BJP MP and the party’s national spokesman Syed Shahnawaz Hussain described the incident as “unfortunate” and said his party hopes the judicial panel set up to probe the firing should submit its report early. “The state government should ensure that due action is taken in conformity to the panel’s report,” said the MP, adding he was directed by BJP national president Nitin Gadkari to meet the victim’s relatives. Mr Hussain’s visit to Forbesganj came three days after Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s visit there.
“The police firing in Bhajanpur village of Forbesganj gave Bihar’s dispirited Opposition parties a spark on which they want to cook their politics. They are giving communal colours to a mere clash between the local people and the police,” said Mr Hussain. “The Nitish Kumar-led government has already promised to ensure justice to the victims and paid `3 lakhs compensation to the kin of each of the deceased,” he added.
Mr Hussain, who took part in a “janata durbar” – public grievance hearing programme – held by deputy chief minister and BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi in Patna on Tuesday, said as an MP from the NDA he would also like to take part in a similar programme being conducted regularly by chief minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar. Mr Hussain praised these programmes as “very helpful means” to redress people’s grievances. Ridiculing the RJD, Mr Hussain said the party’s name still had the word “Rashtriya” (national) while the party was nowhere seen in the nation and had even vanished in Bihar. “The RJD belongs to Bihar, but its national leader is absent in the state when its foundation day is celebrated here,” said the BJP MP.