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Journalism of Courage
In an apparent attempt to gain political mileage from the assault on journalists by ruling JD(U) MLA Anant Singh, the Opposition parties in Bihar enforced a statewide bandh on Friday.
Leader of Opposition Rabri Devi—who otherwise prefers to remain indoors—was seen marching on the roads of Patna with a party flag in her hand demanding that the Nitish Kumar Government should go. “There is jungle and goonda raaj in Bihar. This Government has failed on all fronts and it should go,” she declared before courting arrest. The former CM even sat on a dharna on the road and led a procession of the RJD and registered her presence at all important points of the state capital.
Leaders of other parties like the LJP, CPI-ML, Congress, CPI and NCP were also on the streets to extract their share of the political pie. Though all of them castigated the Nitish Kumar Government for the assault on journalists, CPI-ML(Liberation), which had separately called for a bandh, targeted the previous RJD as well as the present NDA Government for patronising criminals like Anant Singh.
Ironically, a number of politicians with criminal antecedents too were seen protesting against what they called “goonda raaj”. Prominent among them were LJP MP Surajbhan, who is a known terror of the Mokamah area and a rival of Anant Singh. RJD leader Lalit Yadav, who was charged with torturing a truck driver and later exonerated, had also joined the protest.
Reports from across the state said the bandh call had elicited a good response as leaders and workers of all the Opposition parties took to the streets and shouted slogans against the Government. In Patna, shops had downed shutters and schools were closed.
At the Patna University, student leaders of the RJD resorted to vandalism to enforce the bandh. Police arrested more than 900 Opposition workers in Patna and hundreds across the state. All of them were, however, released by evening.
Meanwhile, the Bihar Government has recommended a CBI inquiry in all the five cases involving JD(U) MLA, Anant Singh. On Thursday, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had talked about a CBI probe only into the recovery of the unidentified body of a girl suspected to be raped and murdered by Anant Singh. Later, however, police said the case lodged regarding assault on journalists and the counter FIR lodged by the MLA’s side have also been referred to the agency.
Builder Mukesh Singh and personal guard Bipin Singh, who were also named in the FIR lodged by the NDTV reporter, are yet to be arrested by the police. The body of the girl recovered from a ditch in the city has also not been identified. The body is suspected to be that of Reshma Khatoon who had purportedly written a letter to the CM apprehending that she could be murdered by Anant Singh and his men who had raped her. Efforts are on to trace Reshma’s brother Munna to identify the body.
