Amid the first phase of polling for the Bihar assembly election, the opposition Grand Alliance (GA) comprising RJD-Congress and Left parties on Wednesday came down heavily on chief minister Nitish Kumar over the Munger police firing incident calling it brutal and a reflection of the state government’s total inability to handle law and order.
The GA leaders also demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi dismiss the Nitish Kumar government. The demand came ahead of the three rallies Modi is scheduled to address at Darbanga, Muzaffarpur and Patna for the BJP’s second phase of campaign for the assembly election.
“We want the Prime Minister to immediately dismiss this government as there is complete failure of law and order in the state,” said the GA leaders.
On Monday night, a one person identified as 18-year-old Anurag Poddar died and 27 others were injured when police resorted to firing after processionists during an idol immersion in Munger clashed with the cops. The reason for the clash between cops and processionists is said to be an altercation between revelers and local police late Monday night that initially led to a lathicharge and then firing. Police have claimed anti-social elements in the processions had pelted stones on the police which led to clashes.
Addressing a joint press conference in Patna, leader of the opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, AICC general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala and Left leaders including CPI-ML (Liberation) senior leader Kavita Krishnan said the Munger incident was heart wrenching because the firing by the police was totally uncalled for.
“What was chief minister Nitish Kumar , who holds the home portfolio, doing when the firing was taking place? Who gave the orders to police to become General Dyer in Munger?” said Tejashwi, equating the Munger incident to infamous Jallianwala Bagh police firing on a peaceful gathering in Amritsar on April 13, 1919.
Tejashwi said the administration has claimed that only one person had died in the incident whereas locals claim the death toll in the firing was much more. “The video clippings of the incident having come in the public domain are tragic and show how police beat up the processionists brutally by chasing them,” he said.
Congress leader Surjewala was more vocal stating the Prime Minister should dismiss the state government immediately by taking into account how the police fired upon innocent people during an idol immersion procession. “ Why is the PM silent on this issue?” he asked and said that people want justice for the 18-year-old deceased. “ The video clippings of the mother of the deceased wailing have moved people. Is this our culture that innocent people are targeted during a peaceful procession?” he asked.
Kavita Krishnan of the CPI-ML too condemned the incident calling it a glaring example of growing police brutality in the state. She also said that the state government had carried such brutal lathicharge in recent years against teachers and other contractual workers during peaceful demonstrations for pay hike.
The GA has upped the ante against the Nitish Kumar government over rising crime, unemployment and migration of workers highlighting them as major failures of the NDA government in its stint in power for over a decade.
