In bolstering the confidence of Bihar’s Muslims, while the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U)-BJP government has gone too far to turn back, the Forbesganj police firing incident may have indicated that the regime cannot go forward. The death of four poor Muslims looks set to snowball into a credibility crisis between Mr Kumar and Bihar’s Muslims.
On Wednesday, a man in Patna on a solitary fast-unto-death in protest against the June 3 police firing tried to immolate himself in frustration after neither any leader from the ruling alliance nor any government official visited him during the three-day fast. Policemen promptly stopped the man, Brahmadeo Sao, from setting himself afire, but the incident set off a fresh bout of anti-government sloganeering seeking justice for the firing victims.
The police firing on a large group of protesting Muslim villagers that killed four people — including an infant and a pregnant woman — and left nine people injured, and the subsequent revelations of police brutality leading to the death of a bullet-hit teenager in the presence of Araria SP Garima Mallik, have come to symbolise for the Muslims a dip in the NDA government’s empathy towards them.
With all the Opposition parties decrying the judicial probe ordered by Mr Kumar despite demands for a CBI probe and the suspension of only an ordinary homeguard jawan, the government’s responses are being seen by a majority of the minorities as efforts to brush aside their pain and even to protect BJP leaders who allegedly contributed to the police crackdown.
For Bihar’s 1.36 crore Muslims, the police firing and subsequent political developments bear special significance. The incident took place on a Friday and no senior leader from the ruling NDA came to visit the victims’ families, in the words of Forbesganj’s Muslims.