CPI(ML) and AIARLA activists began an indefinite Dera Dalo – Ghera Dalo dharna at the Begusarai Collectorate gate on 20 August 2018 on the following issues: failure by the administration to give land to the mahadalit poor in Baank (Begusarai District; throwing mahadalits into jail on false cases; incitement of communal hatred, violence and mob-lynching attacks by BJP-RSS organizations. Addressing the dharna CPI(ML) District Secretary Diwakar Kumar said that organizations associated with the BJP-RSS want to suppress democracy. Condemning the attacks on Prof Sanjay Kumar at Motihari and Swami Agnivesh in Jharkhand he demanded the speedy arrest of the culprits.
Comrade Diwakar Kumar further said that the District administration and District police in Baank are not implementing the government policy of giving land to the mahadalit poor. Even after incessant protests and written assurance by the Zonal Officer that land would be given, when land was not given the mahadalits have settled on government land, for which students and youth are now being slapped with false cases and thrown into jail. He demanded that all the false cases should be withdrawn and democratic rights of the poor, mahadalit, and minority students and youth should be guaranteed. The arrest of mahadalits in Baank should be ended without delay. Government lands in Panchayats should be identified and arrangements for homestead land for the poor should be made without delay as per government policy. The poor displaced by the expansion of NH 31 should be given land to build their homes.
AIARLA District Secretary Chandradev Verma said that under Nitish-Modi regime a campaign for evicting the poor and throwing them into jail is being run, instead of giving them land as promised. He said that struggle is the only way for the poor to get land, homes and employment which is their right. He said that ‘Operation Dakhal Dahani’ remains confined on paper only. The property of the liquor mafia is not being seized. He demanded that the lakhs of poor who are in jail in the name of ‘liquor ban’ should be released without delay. He also demanded the arrest of Suresh Sharma of the BJP in the Shelter Home horror case. The dharna was also addressed by AISA leaders Watan Kumar and Zeeshan Ali, RYA leaders Mobassir Ahmed, Abhishek Anand, Gauri Paswan, Indradev Ram and others.
