हत्यारों का पता लगाने का फरमान मैंने नहीं सुना
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पलाश विश्वास
हत्यारों का पता लगाने का फरमान मैंने नहीं सुना
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मुर्दाफरोश
पटना हाईकोर्ट ने बिहार के जहानाबाद जिले के लक्ष्मणपुर बाथे गांव में हुए हत्याकांड के सभी 26 अभियुक्तों को बरी कर दिया है। इनमें से 16 को निचली अदालत ने फांसी की सजा सुनाई थी।
58 दलितों के नरसंहार के इस मामले में पटना हाईकोर्ट ने सुबूतों के अभाव में यह फैसला सुनाया है। जस्टिस वीएन सिन्हा और एके लाल की पीठ ने अभियुक्तों की अपील पर यह फैसला सुनाया है।
पीठ ने कहा कि हमारा मानना है कि बचाव पक्ष के गवाह विश्वसनीय नहीं हैं। इसलिए सभी दोषी संदेह का लाभ मिलने के हकदार हैं। कोर्ट ने 27 जुलाई को मामले की सुनवाई पूरी करने के बाद अपना फैसला सुरक्षित रख लिया था।
कथित रूप से जहानाबाद के लक्ष्मणपुर बाथे गांव में रणवीर सेना ने 58 दलितों की एक साथ हत्या कर दी थी। इनमें 27 महिलाएं और 16 बच्चे शामिल थे। यह इलाका पटना से करीब 125 किलोमीटर दूर है।
दरअसल रणवीर सेना ने यह हत्याकांड बदले की भावना से किया था।
1992 में नक्सलियों के एक गुट ने ऊंची जाति के 37 लोगों की हत्या कर दी थी। रणवीर सेना को शक था कि दलितों ने नक्सलियों को इस हत्याकांड में मदद की थी।
लक्ष्मणपुर बाथे हत्याकांड में 7 अप्रैल 2010 को एडिशनल डिस्ट्रिक्ट एंड सेशन जज विजय प्रकाश मिश्रा ने 16 को मृत्युदंड और 10 को आजीवन कारावास की सजा सुनाई थी। अदालत ने इस हत्याकांड को 'समाज के चरित्र पर धब्बा और दुर्लभतम हत्याकांड' बताया था।
घटना के समय लालू प्रसाद यादव बिहार के मुख्यमंत्री थे। इस घटना को नहीं रोक पाने के लिए लालू सरकार की कड़ी आलोचना भी हुई थी।
बिहार के बहुचर्चित लक्ष्मणपुर बाथे नरसंहार मामले में पटना उच्च न्यायालय द्वारा सभी 26 अभियुक्तों को बरी किए जाने के मामले में सीपीआई माले ने आज राज्य भर में विरोध प्रदर्शन करने का फैसला किया है।
बुधवार को पटना उच्च न्यायलय ने बिहार के इस बहुचर्चित मामले के सभी 26 अभियुक्तों को बरी कर दिया था। साल 2010 में निचली अदालत ने इस मामले में 16 लोगों को फांसी और दस लोगों को आजीवन कारावास की सजा सुनाई थी।
सीपीआई माले के महासचिव दीपांकर भट्टाचार्य ने बीबीसी को बताया कि उनकी पार्टी इस नरसंहार में मारे गए लोगों के परिजनों की ओर से लडाई जारी रखेगी। उनका कहना था कि मारे गए ज्यादातर लोग सीपीआई माले के कार्यकर्ता थे।
उन्होंने कहा, "ये चौथा मामला है जहां उच्च न्यायालय ने दलितो के खिलाफ फैसला दिया है। ये न्याय की हत्या जैसा है। हम बथानी टोला मामले में सुप्रीम कोर्ट में जा चुके हैं। इस मामले में भी हम सुप्रीम कोर्ट में जाएंगे। हम पूछना चाहेंगे कि निचली अदालत ने किन आधार पर इन अभियुक्तों को सजा सुनाई थी।"
उनका कहना था कि इस फैसले के विरोध में सीपीआई माले गुरुवार को राज्य भर विरोध प्रदर्शन करेंगे। उन्होंने इस मामले में विशेष जांच दल का गठन करने की मांग की।
अदालत का फैसला
इससे पहले फैसला सुनाते हुए उच्च न्यायलय के न्यायाधीश वीएन सिन्हा और न्यायाधीश एके लाल की खंडपीठ ने कहा था कि अभियोजन पक्ष की ओर से पेश किए गए गवाह और साक्ष्य विश्वसनीय नहीं हैं। इसलिए सभी दोषियों को संदेह का लाभ देते हुए रिहा किया जाता है।
अदालत के सामने पुलिस ने ऐसा कोई सबूत पेश नहीं किया जिसके आधार पर अभियुक्तों को सजा मिल पाए। पुलिस की रिपोर्ट बहुत कमजोर थी।
उच्च न्यायलय ने 27 जुलाई को मामले की सुनवाई पूरी करने के बाद अपना फैसला सुरक्षित रख लिया था।
निचली अदालत ने सुनाई थी सजा
एक दिसंबर 1997 को बिहार के जहानाबाद जिले के लक्ष्मणपुर और बाथे गांव में नरसंहार हुआ था। हमलावरों ने 58 दलितों की हत्या कर दी थी। मारे जाने वालों में 27 महिलाएं और 16 बच्चे भी थे।
घटना के करीब 13 साल बाद 2010 में पटना की एक विशेष अदालत ने 16 लोगों को फांसी और 10 लोगों को आजीवन कारावास की सजा सुनाई थी। सात अप्रैल 2010 को अतिरिक्त जिला और सत्र न्यायधीश विजय प्रकाश मिश्रा ने इस हत्याकांड को 'समाज के चरित्र पर धब्बा और दुर्लभतम हत्याकांड' बताया था।
लेकिन, अब तीन साल बाद पटना उच्च न्यायलय ने हुए इस नरसंहार के सभी अभियुक्तों को बरी कर दिया है।
लक्ष्मणपुर बाथे मामला: फैसले के विरोध में प्रदर्शन
गुरुवार, 10 अक्तूबर, 2013 को 13:41 IST तक के समाचार
बिहार में जातीय संघर्ष होते रहे हैं. बथानी टोला में भी हुए नरसंहार में 21 दलित लोगों की हत्या हुई थी.
बिहार के बहुचर्चित लक्ष्मणपुर बाथे नरसंहार मामले में पटना उच्च न्यायालय द्वारा सभी 26 अभियुक्तों को बरी किए जाने के मामले में सीपीआई माले ने आज राज्य भर में विरोध प्रदर्शन करने का फैसला किया है.
बुधवार को पटना उच्च न्यायलय ने बिहार के इस बहुचर्चित मामले के सभी 26 अभियुक्तों को बरी कर दिया था. साल 2010 में निचली अदालत ने इस मामले में 16 लोगों को फाँसी और दस लोगों को आजीवन कारावास की सजा सुनाई थी.
संबंधित समाचार
सीपीआई माले के महासचिव दीपांकर भट्टाचार्य ने बीबीसी को बताया कि उनकी पार्टी इस नरसंहार में मारे गए लोगों के परिजनों की ओर से लड़ाई जारी रखेगी. उनका कहना था कि मारे गए ज़्यादातर लोग सीपीआई माले के कार्यकर्ता थे.
उन्होंने कहा, "ये चौथा मामला है जहां उच्च न्यायालय ने दलितो के खिलाफ फैसला दिया है. ये न्याय की हत्या जैसा है. हम बथानी टोला मामले में सुप्रीम कोर्ट में जा चुके हैं. इस मामले में भी हम सुप्रीम कोर्ट में जाएंगे. हम पूछना चाहेंगे कि निचली अदालत ने किन आधार पर इन अभियुक्तों को सज़ा सुनाई थी."
उनका कहना था कि इस फैसले के विरोध में सीपीआई माले गुरुवार को राज्य भर विरोध प्रदर्शन करेंगे. उन्होंने इस मामले में विशेष जांच दल का गठन करने की मांग की.
अदालत का फैसला
इससे पहले फ़ैसला सुनाते हुए उच्च न्यायलय के न्यायाधीश वीएन सिन्हा और न्यायाधीश एके लाल की खंडपीठ ने कहा था कि अभियोजन पक्ष की ओर से पेश किए गए गवाह और साक्ष्य विश्वसनीय नहीं हैं. इसलिए सभी दोषियों को संदेह का लाभ देते हुए रिहा किया जाता है.
क्लिक करें"न्याय मिल जाता तो आंसू नहीं बहाने पड़ते..."
अदालत के सामने पुलिस ने ऐसा कोई सबूत पेश नहीं किया जिसके आधार पर अभियुक्तों को सज़ा मिल पाए. पुलिस की रिपोर्ट बहुत कमज़ोर थी.
उच्च न्यायलय ने 27 जुलाई को मामले की सुनवाई पूरी करने के बाद अपना फ़ैसला सुरक्षित रख लिया था.
क्लिक करेंबिहार: 'मुखिया ने बवंडर को बवंडर से काटा'
निचली अदालत ने सुनाई थी सज़ा
एक दिसंबर 1997 को बिहार के ज़हानाबाद ज़िले के लक्ष्मणपुर और बाथे गांव में नरसंहार हुआ था. हमलावरों ने 58 दलितों की हत्या कर दी थी. मारे जाने वालों में 27 महिलाएं और 16 बच्चे भी थे.
क्लिक करेंजनसंहारों का दंश अब भी झेल रहा है बिहार
घटना के क़रीब 13 साल बाद 2010 में पटना की एक विशेष अदालत ने 16 लोगों को फांसी और 10 लोगों को आजीवन कारावास की सज़ा सुनाई थी. सात अप्रैल 2010 को अतिरिक्त ज़िला और सत्र न्यायधीश विजय प्रकाश मिश्रा ने इस हत्याकांड को 'समाज के चरित्र पर धब्बा और दुर्लभतम हत्याकांड' बताया था।
लेकिन, अब तीन साल बाद पटना उच्च न्यायलय ने हुए इस नरसंहार के सभी अभियुक्तों को बरी कर दिया है.
क्लिक करेंबिहार: खत्म हो पाई है जनसंहार की दहशत?
(बीबीसी हिंदी का एंड्रॉयड मोबाइल ऐप डाउनलोड करने के लिए क्लिक करेंक्लिक करें. आप ख़बरें पढ़ने और अपनी राय देने के लिए हमारे क्लिक करेंफ़ेसबुक पन्ने पर भी आ सकते हैं और क्लिक करेंट्विटर पर फ़ॉलो भी कर सकते हैं.)
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मनोरंजन कुमार | Oct 10, 2013, 1
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पटना। सेना बनाई। औरंगाबाद में राजपूतों ने सनलाइट सेना और रोहतास, भोजपुर में ब्राह्मणों ने आजाद सेना का गठन किजातीय संघर्ष की कहानी सदियों पुरानी है। लेकिन 1980 के दशक में जाती आधारित सेना के गठन का प्रचलन शुरू हुआ। जानकार बताते हैं कि वर्ष 1980 में कूर्मी जाति के लोगों ने भूमि सेना का गठन किया। यादवों ने 1984 में लोरिक या। अपनी जमीन बचाने के नाम पर भूमिहार जाति के लोगों ने 1994 में रणवीर सेना का गठन किया। इसी तरह क्रांतिकारी संगठन और गंगा सेना का भी गठन अलग-अलग जातियों ने किया। इनके बीच हुए हिंसा प्रति हिंसा में 100 से ज्यादा लोगों की हत्या हो चुकी है।
हिंसा - प्रतिहिंसा की बढ़ती घटना के कारण 1986 में जहानाबाद और 2001 में अरवल जिला का गठन किया गया था।
बिहार में सबसे जघन्य नरसंहार
नरसंहार मारे गए लोगों की संख्या तारीख
अरवल 21 1986
कनसारा 09 1986
मोदनगंज 05 1986
गंधार 05 1986
दौलतपुर 05 1986
कुर्था 05 1987
कोयरिया 04 1987
नोन्ही नगवां 19 1988
दमूआ खगड़ी 11 1988
गोलकपुर 04 1988
पंतित 04 1988
भदासी 04 1988
आगे पढ़िए कब क्या हुआ
Laxmanpur Bathe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Laxmanpur Bathe is a village in Arwal district in Bihar state, India, on the river Son, about 125–km from Patna. It is most known for the massacre that took place on December 1, 1997, where 58 Dalits, low-caste people, were allegedly killed by members of the Ranvir Sena, a militia of upper caste Bhumihar landlords of the state.
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1997 Laxmanpur Bathe massacre[edit]
The village was the site of a massacre of 58 Dalits by the upper-caste Ranvir Sena on the night of 1 December 1997. Luxmanpur Bathe,125 km from Patna and along the banks of Sone, was targeted because Ranvir Sena members believed the village's Dalits, mostly poor and landless, were sympathizers of Maoists behind the killing of 37 upper caste men in Bara in Gaya district in 1992. Ranvir Sena, a militia of upper caste landlords, was created by Bhumihars to take on the Naxalites, who had several Dalits as foot soldiers. "[1]
58 Dalits were gunned down including 27 women and 16 children by the Ranvir Sena at Laxmanpur Bathe in Jehanabad on December 1, 1997, sending shock waves across the country.The Lalu Prasad-led RJD government was then ruling the state.In the well-planned operation, about 100 Ranbir Sena activists carrying firearms had descended on Lakshmanpur Bathe at around 11 pm.They forced their way into huts by breaking open the doors and fired indiscriminately at people who were asleep. The entire hamlet located on the banks of the Sone river was virtually decimated in the attack that lasted more than three hours. The youngest victim was one-year-old. "[2]"
The then President K R Narayanan had expressed his shock and dismay over the mass murder of 58 Dalits in Central Bihar. In his strong-worded reaction, he had termed the massacre as one of the most shameful incidents in independent India."[3]
Trial[edit]
On 7 April 2010, the Additional District and Sessions Judge Vijai Prakash Mishra of the Patna Civil Court sentenced 16 men to death and 10 to life imprisonment for the massacre. While pronouncing the verdict, sessions judge Mishra described the December 1, 1997, killing as a "stigma on civil society and rarest of rare cases of brutality. "[4]"
The Laxmanpur-Bathe case was pending with no witnesses turning up and the police sitting over it. But it was only in December 2008, that charges were framed against 46 Ranvir sena men,11 years after the massacre. Altogether 91 of 152 witnesses in the case deposed before the court. Sessions Judge Mishra, on conclusion of trial in the case on April 1, had fixed April 7, 2010, as the date for announcing the verdict. Earlier, the case was transferred to Patna from Jehanabad following a Patna High Court order in October, 1999. "[2]"
On October 9, 2013, Patna High Court acquitted all 26 accused persons due to lack of evidence. [5][6]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
Jump up^ Arun Kumar (Apr 8, 2010). "16 to hang for killing 58 in Bihar village". The Times of India. Retrieved 2013-10-10.
^ Jump up to:a b "16 sentenced to death for 1997 Jehanabad carnage". NDTV.com. 2010-04-07. Retrieved 2013-10-10.
Jump up^ "Death to 16 in Dalit massacre". Deccan Herald. April 7, 2010. Retrieved 2013-10-10.
Jump up^ "Death for 16 Ranvir Sena men". The Telegraph. 2010-04-08. Retrieved 2013-10-10.
Jump up^ "Bihar: HC acquits 26 convicted of Laxmanpur-Bathe carnage". The Times of India. Oct 10, 2013. Retrieved 2013-10-10.
Jump up^ Rahi Gaikwad (Oct 9, 2013). "Patna High Court acquits all 26 in Dalit massacre case". The Hindu. Retrieved 2013-10-10.
Patna High Court acquits all 26 in Dalit massacre case
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RAHI GAIKWAD
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crime, law and justice
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Setting aside the conviction by a lower court, the Patna High Court on Wednesday acquitted all the 26 accused in the 1997 case of Laxmanpur Bathe massacre, in which 58 Dalits were killed allegedly by members of the Ranvir Sena, a militia of upper caste Bhumihar landlords.
A Division Bench of Justices V. N. Sinha and A. K. Lal ruled that the prosecution witnesses "are not reliable" and the appellants deserved to be given the benefit of the doubt. The acquitted persons should be released forthwith if they were not wanted in any other case, it said.
On April 7, 2010, Vijay Prakash Mishra, additional district and sessions judge, Patna, had given the death sentence to 16 convicts and life imprisonment to 10 others. Nineteen others were acquitted.
Wednesday's verdict, coming 16 years after the massacre, is a big blow to the prosecution. "We will examine what went wrong and then decide if we want to go in appeal," Director-General of Police Abhayanand told The Hindu.
The crime, which occurred under the Mehandia police station in the erstwhile Arwal subdivision, now in Jehanabad district, on the night of December 1, 1997, is one of most brutal in the series of massacres in Bihar's bloody history of caste oppression. Among the 58 deceased were 27 women and 16 children.
This is the third instance of acquittals, after the verdicts in the Bathani tola and Nagri Bazaar massacre cases in July 2012 and March 2013 respectively.
Counsel Kanhaiya Prasad Singh, representing the accused who had been awarded the death sentence in this case, told The Hindu, "There were 91 witnesses. My main contention was that the FIR had names of people who were not seen at the time of occurrence of the attack. The police went to the village, but no one gave any name. The government prepared a list of forward caste names and supplied them later."
"SHAMEFUL"
But the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) said the acquittals "are shameful."
In a statement, general secretary Deepankar Bhattacharya, said: "Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has to answer about his promise to give justice to the victims of massacres. Former President K.R. Narayanan had termed the Bathe massacre 'a national shame'."
Mr. Bhattacharya said the verdict was another instance in a series of acquittals in cases of massacres, the others being Bathani tola, Nagri, Mianpur, Narayanpur and Khagdi-Bigha. He demanded that a special investigation team be set up under the supervision of the Supreme Court to guarantee justice to massacre victims.
Keywords: Patna High Court, Laxmanpur Bathe massacre, Ranvir Sena, Bhumihar landlords
Star Anand reports:
বহু প্রতীক্ষার চারটি দিন কি বৃষ্টিতে ভেসে যাবে, এই আশঙ্কা মাথাচাড়া দিয়েছিল তিন-চারদিন আগের আকাশের গম্ভীর মুখের দিকে তাকিয়ে৷ সেই আশঙ্কা তীব্র করে তুলেছিল আবহাওয়া দফতরের পূর্বাভাস৷ পুজোতেও বৃষ্টি হতে পারে বলে তারা জানিয়েছিল।যদিও তাতে আমল না দিয়ে চতুর্থী, পঞ্চমীর সন্ধ্যাতেই রাস্তায় নেমেছে জনতার ঢল৷ আর বৃহস্পতিবার সকাল থেকেই আকাশ সেজেছে শারদ-রঙে৷ মেঘ-ভ্রকুটির তোয়াক্কা না করেই আকাশের আনাচ কানাচ থেকে রোদ্দুর জানান দিচ্ছে আজ মহাষষ্ঠী৷ বোধনের দিনই শহরের বুকে শরতের আলতো ছোঁয়া৷ বোধনের পর অধিবাস৷ গণেশ, কার্তিক, লক্ষ্মী, সরস্বতী--সপরিবারে আসবেন মা দুর্গা৷ সপ্তমীর সকালে পা দেবেন বাপের বাড়িতে৷ সকাল থেকেই দেবীর আবাহনের প্রস্তুতি৷ রাস্তায়, পুজো প্যান্ডেলে মাথার ভিড়৷ থিম, সাবেকিয়ানা, নান্দনিকতায় মিলে-মিশে উদযাপনের রঙ৷ বাঙালির উত্সবের প্রহর৷
ভুবনেশ্বর: অন্ধ্রপ্রদেশ ও ওড়িশা উপকূলের দিকে ধেয়ে আসছে ঘূর্ণিঝড় পিলিন৷ ওড়িশার পারাদ্বীপ থেকে ৯০০ কিলোমিটার দূরে বঙ্গোপসাগরের ওপর রয়েছে ঘূর্ণিঝড়টি৷ আগামী ২৪ ঘণ্টার মধ্যে ১৭৫ থেকে ১৮৫ কিলোমিটার বেগে অন্ধ্র ও ওড়িশা উপকূলের ওপর আছড়ে পড়তে পারে পিলিন৷ ঘূর্ণিঝড়টি ক্রমশ উত্তর-পশ্চিম দিকে এগিয়ে যাচ্ছে৷ ইতিমধ্যেই ওড়িশা-অন্ধ্র উপকূলে ঝোড়ো হাওয়া ও ভারী বৃষ্টি শুরু হয়েছে৷ অন্ধ্র, ওড়িশা, আন্দামান ও পশ্চিমবঙ্গ উপকূলে জারি হয়েছে সতর্কতা৷ মত্স্যজীবীদের সমুদ্রে যেতে নিষেধ করা হয়েছে৷ আবহবিদদের মতে, উত্তর-পশ্চিম দিক থেকে ঘূর্ণিঝড়টি সামান্য সরলে দুর্যোগের কবলে পড়বে পশ্চিমবঙ্গ৷ সমাপ্ত হওয়ার পথে রূপকথার ক্রিকেট , ২০০ টেস্ট খেলার পর ২২গজকে বিদায়ের সিদ্ধান্ত সচিন তেন্ডুলকরের
বিদায় মাস্টার ব্লাস্টার, বিদায় এবার...
সচিনকে অবসরের পিছনে বোর্ডের হাত!
আসছে ঘূর্ণিঝড় `ফাইলিন`, পুজো মাটি হওয়ার আশঙ্কা, ২৪ ঘণ্টায় LIVE UPDATE দেখতে থাকুন আর সেইমত পুজো প্ল্যান সাজান
http://zeenews.india.com/bengali/
Reuters India
Average global wealth has hit a peak of $51,600 per adult but this is spread very unevenly, with the richest 10 percent owning 86 percent of the wealth, analysts at the Credit Suisse Research Institute said.
Richest 1 percent owns 46 pct of global wealth - Credit Suisse
দিনের সেরা খবর
নভেম্বরে ২০০-তম টেস্ট খেলেই অবসর সচিনের
মুম্বই: নভেম্বরেই সচিন যুগের অবসান৷ ২০০তম টেস্টের পরই আন্তর্জাতিক ক্রিকেট থেকে অবসর নিচ্ছেন সচিন তেন্ডুলকর৷ বিসিসিআইকে চিঠি দিয়ে অবসরের এই সিদ্ধান্তের কথা জানিয়েছেন সচিন৷ সামনের নভেম্বরে ভারত…
Global wealth has risen by 68 percent over the past 10 years to reach a new all-time high of $241 trillion and the United States accounts for nearly three quarters of the increase, Credit Suisse said in its World Wealth Report.
Average global wealth has hit a peak of $51,600 per adult but this is spread very unevenly, with the richest 10 percent owning 86 percent of the wealth, analysts at the Credit Suisse Research Institute said.
The top 1 percent alone own 46 percent of all global assets.
Global wealth will jump a further 40 percent by 2018 to reach $334 trillion, the report added.
The richest nations, with wealth per adult of more than $100,000, are concentrated in North America, Western Europe and among the rich Asia-Pacific and Middle Eastern countries.
They are headed by Switzerland, where average adult wealth amounts to $513,000, followed by Australia, Norway and Luxembourg.
However, two thirds of adults in the world have assets worth less than $10,000 and together account for just 3 percent of global wealth.
Since mid-2012, the number of millionaires worldwide has risen by nearly two million, the vast majority of them in the United States, the report said. By contrast, Japan lost 1.2 million millionaires during the same period.
The rise in U.S. wealth has been driven by a recovery in house prices and a bull equity market.
In Japan, the central bank's aggressive monetary policy drove the yen/dollar exchange rate down by 22 percent, leading to a drop in household wealth of $5.8 trillion this year alone, equivalent to 20 percent of Japanese net worth, the report said.
Despite its strong economic growth over the past decades, Chinese hold barely 9 percent of global wealth while accounting for more than a fifth of the global adult population.
For Africa and India, the population share exceeds the wealth share by a factor of ten, the report showed.
Credit Suisse said there were 98,700 individuals with net worth exceeding $50 million, more than half of them in the United States. Europe ranked second, home to nearly 25,000.
The biggest emerging markets, the so-called BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India, and China - are each estimated to have around 5,830 such ultra-high net worth individuals.
Nevertheless, the number of billionaires in the BRICs has risen from 5 percent of the world's total in 2000 to 19 percent in 2010. Between 2000 and 2010, the number of billionaires in China alone rose from 1 to 64, the study showed.
By contrast, the number of billionaires in older developed countries such as France and Japan fell in that period.
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हत्यारों का पता लगाने का फरमान मैंने नहीं सुना
Reuters India
India has emerged as the world's biggest arms importer as it tries to update archaic weapons systems to keep up with neighbours China and Pakistan in a $100 billion modernisation drive.
Ministry row latest blow to defence modernisation
A plan to attract private Indian firms to help build military aircraft could be delayed after Heavy Industries Minister Praful Patel said the proposal was unfair to state-run companies.
India has emerged as the world's biggest arms importer as it tries to update archaic weapons systems to keep up with neighbours China and Pakistan in a $100 billion modernisation drive.
The government wants to encourage private Indian companies to partner with foreign suppliers to reduce its reliance in imports and help develop a domestic defence industry that has so far been beholden to underperforming public sector companies.
In May, the Defence Ministry launched a tender to buy and build 56 military transport planes to replace an ageing fleet of Avro jets at an estimated cost of 119 billion rupees. The ministry said the deal must be struck between a foreign supplier and an Indian private firm.
However, Praful Patel said on Wednesday that the public sector utilities (PSUs) already making products for the armed forces should have been given a chance to take part in the bidding process.
"All I am saying is, our companies, the PSUs, are extraordinary companies which have great capabilities and they have time-tested proven abilities and they have been doing this job for years and years," Patel told a television station after writing a letter to the defence minister.
"There is no reason why an Indian PSU should have an exclusion in the contract," Patel said.
The Defence Ministry said it would now look into Patel's complaint, potentially delaying the tender process. Many of India's foreign arms purchases run into long delays because of accusations of corruption and complicated bureaucracy.
BLUE CHIP
Despite Patel's confidence in state-run defence manufacturers, their track record is patchy. Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), the country's main defence aeronautics supplier, has been developing a light combat aircraft since the early 1980s with no success so far.
India's $15 billion deal with France's Dassault Aviation (AVMD.PA) to buy 126 Rafale fighter jets is yet to be finalised, partly because the French company doubted HAL, its mandatory partner, had the technological capability to manufacture such a sophisticated fighter jet.
The air force told the Defence Ministry in July it did not want to buy a trainer plane under development by HAL, preferring a cheaper and more efficient imported plane.
Air Force chief N.A.K. Browne said on Friday HAL's attempt to build a trainer jet was "extravagant". He said the company's prototype was not powerful enough, according to a report by news agency the Press Trust of India published on the Economic Times website.
HAL also made the engines in India's collection of MiG fighter jets, commonly known as flying coffins because of their appalling crash record. More than half the MiG fleet of 872 aircraft has been lost to crashes that killed 171 pilots, Defence Minister A.K. Antony told parliament last year.
HAL has said it significantly contributes to the armed forces with locally made products, and is revamping its capabilities and capacities as part of a modernisation drive.
Many blue chip Indian companies, including billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries(RELI.NS), Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) (LART.NS) and Mahindra and Mahindra (MAHM.NS) have been gearing up to take part in India's push to build a local arms industry.
The tender to replace the Avro fleet was sent to five foreign companies, including Boeing (BA.N), Lockheed Martin (LMT.N) and EADS CASA (EAD.PA).
The government expected deliveries to start within a year of finalising the contract, Antony told parliament this year. (Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Alison Williams)
Lalajee Nirmal
लक्ष्मणपुर बाथे में दलितों के सामूहिक नरसंहार के सभी आरोपी इज्जत के साथ बरी किये जाने के पटना हाईकोर्ट के फैसले से दलित स्तब्ध नहीं है वह बेहद आक्रोशित है |दलित इस बात से भी खफा है कि दामिनी बलात्कार के मामले में चौबीसों घंटे बहस कर रहे मिडिया ने महिलाओ, बच्चो और गर्भस्थ शिशुओ की हत्या को बहस लायक माना ही नहीं |क्या दलित इस देश के दोयम दर्जे के नागरिक है | अखबार का एक कोना भी नहीं देना चाहते |
Anand Pradhan
लक्ष्मणपुर-बाथे नरसंहार मामले में न्याय के ऐसे नरसंहार का हर न्यायपसंद नागरिक को खुला विरोध करना चाहिए। 'न्याय' के नाम पर इस अन्याय को बर्दाश्त नहीं किया जा सकता है। क्या न्याय के बिना जनतंत्र धोखा नहीं है? लेकिन बथानी टोला और अब बाथे नरसंहार मामले में न्याय की हत्या के सभी मुजरिमों को पहचानने और उनका पर्दाफ़ाश करने की ज़रूरत है। ये सभी जनतंत्र और न्याय के सबसे बड़े दुश्मन हैं।
लक्ष्मणपुर बाथे नरसंहार में 58 दलितों की हत्या एक दिसम्बर 1997 को की गई थी.जो मारे गए उनमें 27 महिलाए थी जबकि 16 बच्चे थे .जिन्हें घर से निकालकरभून दिया गया था ,उन महिलाओं में से 10 गर्भवती थी .बिहार के इस सामूहिक हत्याकांड के में 16 को सजा ए मौत और 10 को आजीवन कारावास की सजा सुनाई थी निचली अदालत ने .
पटना हाईकोर्ट के माननीय न्यायाधीश ने अपने फैसले में सभी गवाह और साक्ष्य को अविश्वसनीय माना और संदेह का लाभ देकर सभी आरोपियों को जेल से तत्काल रिहा करने का फरमान जारी किया .
माननीय न्यायालय को संदेह नहीं है कि मारे गए है 58.जो बच्चे और गर्भवती मारी गई दिन दहाड़े ,वह सच माना गया .
कोई भी एक गवाह भरोसे लायक नहीं लगा बड़ी अदालत को और जो साक्ष्य पेश किये गए ,सब को झूठा माना गया .
हत्यारे की दलील सच मानी गई .अब वे हत्यारे नहीं है .उन्हें बाइज्जत बरी किया गया .
हम हलफनामा देने के लिए तैयार है ,दूध का दूध और पानी का पानी किया है .
यह ख़याल आना ही नहीं था लेकिन चला आया ,
जो मारे गए ..जो अजन्में मर गए अपनी मौत
जो थी गर्भवती महिलाए ..सबकी लाश रखी गई थी दो दिन ,तब मुख्यमंत्री ने देखी थी अपनी आँख से ...सबने माना हत्या ,एक सच था और अभी तक है .
बरी हो गए जो पकड़े गए थे और अदालत ने माना था उन्हें हत्यारा ,तभी तो फांसी की सज़ा सुना दी थी ....तब सब सच ही था ...
अब जानना इतना सा है ,58 दलितों की हत्या का आरोपी कौन है ?
हत्यारों का पता लगाने का फरमान मैंने नहीं सुना ....
IFC plans to raise $1 billion from rupee-linked bond programme for projects in India
IFC officials said the bonds' maturity had not been finalised but the programme could include tranches of two or three-year paper initially followed by long-term bonds.
The coupon and settlement of the bonds will be in dollars but the proceeds will be converted into rupees and allocated to private sector projects in India, IFC officials told Reuters by telephone.
"The bond coupon and the FX exchange rate will all reflect the Indian rupee's fundamentals," said Jingdong Hua, vice-president, Treasury and Syndications at IFC, World Bank Group.
The rupee has rebounded by more than 11 percent since hitting a record low of 68.85 against the dollar on August 28 after being hammered earlier this year on concerns about India's gaping current account deficit and expectations for reduced capital inflows to India once the U.S. Federal Reserve starts to scale back its stimulus programme.
Investors in the bonds will bear the exchange rate risk, but are likely to benefit from a wide interest differential between India and the United States.
Hua said demand was likely to be strong due to IFC's AAA credit rating.
IFC is also in talks with the Indian government about setting up an onshore bond programme, but officials did not elaborate.
IFC invested $1.4 billion in India in the last financial year which ended in March. (Reporting by Neha Dasgupta; Editing by Susan Fenton)
http://www.abpananda.newsbullet.in/
Gods forbid: India's temples guard their gold from government
By D. Jose
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India | Mon Sep 30, 2013 8:05am IST
(Reuters) - India's temples are resisting divulging their gold holdings - perhaps nearly half the amount held in Fort Knox - amid mistrust of the motives of authorities who are trying to cut a hefty import bill that is hurting the economy.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which has already taken steps that have slowed to a trickle the incoming supplies that have exacerbated India's current account deficit, has sent letters to some of the country's richest temples asking for details of their gold.
It says the inquiries are simply data collection, but Hindu groups are up in arms.
"The gold stored in temples was contributed by devotees over thousands of years and we will not allow anyone to usurp it," said V Mohanan, secretary of the Hindu nationalist Vishwa Hindu Parishad organisation in Kerala, in a statement.
Indians buy as much as 2.3 tonnes of gold, on average, every day - the weight of a small elephant - and what they don't give to the gods is mostly hoarded. Jewellery is handed down as heirlooms and stored away with bars and coins as a hedge against inflation or a source of quick funds in an emergency.
That is costing the economy dear. Gold imports totalled $54 billion in the year ending March 31, 2013, the biggest non-essential item shipped in from overseas and a major factor in swelling the current account deficit to a record in 2012/13.
Guruvayur temple, in Kerala, one of the most sacred in India and boasting a 33.5-metre (110-ft) gold-plated flagstaff, has already told the RBI it won't divulge any details.
"The gold we have is mostly offered by the devotees. They would not like the details to be shared with anybody," said V M Gopala Menon, commissioner of the temple's administrative board.
The World Gold Council estimates there are about 2,000 tonnes of gold locked away in temples - worth about $84 billion at current prices - which Indian devotees have offered in the form of jewellery, bars, coins and even replicas of body parts, in the hope of winning favours from the gods or in thanks for blessings received and health restored.
Curbing gold imports and getting the gold squirreled away back into circulation has become a priority for the government and RBI this year. Import duty is at a record 10 percent and the latest new rule - that 20 percent of all imports must leave the country as jewellery exports - caused confusion that dried up buying for two months.
The head of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Kerala, V Muralidharan, said the RBI wanted to "take possession" of the gold and maybe sell it for dollars.
DATA COLLECTING?
The RBI said there was "no proposal under its consideration to convert idle gold into bullion at this juncture".
But its letters, sent to leading temple trusts in Kerala, were prompted by a report looking at "issues related to gold imports" and loans outside the banking system in February, which zeroed in on temples and domestic hoards for fresh supplies.
Under the heading "supply-related measures", the report looks at recycling domestic gold and notes: "Temples in India hold large quantities of gold jewellery offered by devotees to the deities."
Subha Unnikrishnan, a clothes shop owner worshipping at one of the temples in Kerala's capital Thiruvananthapuram, said whatever had been given to the temple should stay there.
"We have given it to the god with a purpose," he said. "Nobody can take them away."
Of the three major temple boards in Kerala, which administer more than 2,800 temples, Cochin board has also decided against providing details of its gold, while another has yet to decide and a third says it has not yet received a letter from the RBI.
Some of them cite security reasons for their reticence - and the wealthiest temples do have tight controls and metal detectors at gates to keep their assets safe.
There has been no inquiry from the RBI yet at the centuries-old Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple, where two years ago treasure then estimated to be worth over $20 billion - more than India's education budget - was discovered in secret subterranean vaults. But its hoard is already being checked by the Supreme Court to make sure it is adequately protected.
There are some, for sure, who feel the temples should divulge their centuries of gold offerings.
"Everything the temple gets should be known to the devotees," said Shankaram Kutty, head of an advertising firm based in Cochin, who goes at least once a year to Guruvayur with an offering. "I feel every temple should declare their assets."
Mumbai's Shree Siddhivinayak Ganpati temple, often visited by Bollywood celebrities, had already put 10 kg (22 lbs) of its gold into a bank deposit scheme. It still has 140 kg in its vault.
"The gold we have is the nation's property, we will be proud if the nation can benefit from it," said Subhash Vitthal Mayekar, chairman of the temple's administrative trust. He has not yet received an inquiry from the RBI.
It is not alone. The Tirupati temple in Andhra Pradesh, considered one of India's richest, has lodged 2,250 kg of gold with the State Bank of India, which pays it interest.
As the central bank ponders its options, it could take heart that the temples themselves are already doing their bit to circulate the gold.
"We use some of it for making gold lockets that we sell in our temple counter. For making the lockets, we send some gold to the Mumbai mint through the State Bank of India, which is one of our bankers," said a source at the Guruvayur temple's administration.
(Additional reporting by Siddesh Mayenkar and Suvashree Dey Choudhury in MUMBAI; Malini Menon in NEW DELHI; A. Ananthalakshmi in SINGAPORE; Writing by Jo Winterbottom; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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Rajiv Lochan Sah
'सहारा' के नवीन जोशी को धन्यवाद सहित, क्योंकि अकेले वही गंभीर मुद्दों को ईमानदारी से रखने की कोशिश करते हैं. अन्य भाई लोग तो उथली समझ अथवा सीमित स्थान में दर्जनों ख़बरें समेटने की विवशता के चलते या तो ऐसी खबरों को रद्दी में फेंक देते हैं या 150 शब्दों में समेट कर उनकी आत्मा नष्ट कर देते हैं....
Lenin Raghuvanshi
Invitation
People's Vigilance committee on human rights
With support from Dignity Danish institute against torture in collaboration with Voice of People and QIC-AC
Invites to a
Public hearing to ensure the dignity of bonded labour and child labour
Chief Guest
Dr. Yogesh Dube, Member, National Commission for Child Rights (NCPCR), New Delhi
Guest of Honor
Ms. Shamina Shafiq, Member, National Commission for Women, New Delhi
Mr. O.P Vyas, Assistant Registrar, National Human Rights Commission, New Delhi
On 25October, 2013 10 am onwards
At
Hotel India Awadh, Hazratganj, Lucknow
For more information please contact to shabana@pvchr.asia , mobile no. 9935599331
Waiting for your kind participation
Lenin Raghuvanshi
Executive Director
PVCHR
Shruti Nagvanshi
Convenor Voice of People
PVCHR, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India
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 *BIHAR Bathed In Terror In the worst chapter of Bihar's caste war, a private army of landlords kills 62 Dalit supporters of the Naxalites |
FOR the people of Laxmanpur-Bathe village in the Jehanabad district of Bihar narasamhaar (genocide) was not an unfamiliar term. For, when the dreaded private army of the upper-caste landlords, the Ranvir Sena, mowed down 21 Dalit sympathisers of the Naxalites in Bathani Tola in neighbouring Bhojpur district last July, the news immediately reached Bathe. Despite age-old tensions with the upper-caste landlords, there was no apparent cause for concern for the Dalit labourers of Bathe as the Ranvir Sena had no base in their village.
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And Bathani Tola was quite far away—across the mighty Sone river that quietly flows between Bhojpur and Jehanabad in central Bihar.
Little did the people of Bathe know that the killer hordes of the Ranvir Sena would one night quietly cross the Sone and butcher 62 unsuspecting men, women and children, most of them supporters of the CPI-ML (Liberation) and the CPI-ML (Party Unity). The victims happened to be Dalits fighting for their legitimate wages, humane treatment and a measure of social respect.
On the night of December 1, more than 100 armed marauders of the Ranvir Sena crossed the Sone by two boats, killed the boatmen, swooped down on Bathe, opening a barrage of bullets, shouting slogans of "Ranvir baba ki jai", breaking open doors, chasing women and old men into their huts and finally shooting them in their heads or chests from pointblank range.
Even infants and pregnant women were not spared. "I thought they would not kill women and children at least, so I ran away to save my life," says peasant Lachhman Rajwar. When he came back after the din was over he found his wife, daughter and daughter-in-law dead. It was pitch dark and no one was in a position to identify the killers. (The village has no basic facilities like roads, electricity and drinking water.)
Eighteen-year-old Vinod is the only person among the survivors who can identify some of the attackers. "When they came in my sister gave me a soop (chaff-cleaner) to hide behind. Many armed men came in but could not see me whereas I saw the faces of some of them," says he. He has given the police a list of people who he has been able to identify. And his testimony shows the Ranvir Sena has the backing of upper-caste landlords of Bathe village.
Vinod told Outlook that at around 9.30 pm when he was about to sleep he heard someone shouting amidst bullet shots: "Pura tola ko maaro (kill the whole hamlet)." Then he heard local Rajput landlord Dwarika Singh's son Anjani say "badka ladka nahin hai (where is the elder son)?" "They came in one after another looking for the IPF (Indian People's Front) people but they couldn't see me behind the soop. Among them were Pramod Singh, Ashok Singh, Girija Sharma and Bhukhan Sharma, all local forward caste people," he recalls.
This macabre dance continued for two-and-a-half hours till one of the Sena men blew a whistle as a signal to leave. They went towards the banks of the Sone river and disappeared using the boats they had come by, leaving behind the corpses of 17 children, 27 women and 18 men. The darkest chapter in the ongoing bloody war between the feudal landlords and the Naxalites in Bihar was over.
Then began the rituals of condemning the incident. President K.R. Narayanan, in a strong reaction, called it a national shame.Amnesty International described Bihar as a "lawless state". The RJD government led by Laloo Prasad Yadav's wife Rabri Devi reacted simply by suspending the SSP of Jehanabad and transferring some other officials.
The trouble between the Dalits and the upper-caste landlords of Bathe began in 1989 when for the first time the CPI-ML (Liberation) successfully mobilised labourers to demand an increase in the wages, which was then 1.5 kg of rice for a day's work. The party asked for double the quantity. The landlords conceded only when the Liberation used its time-tested tool of struggle, boycott. For one season the land had to be left unploughed. But the next season the wages were raised: 3 kg of rice or Rs 30 per day. That was a major jolt for Bhumihars and Rajputs.
The Rajputs were further pushed back when, in 1996, armed men of the Liberation forcefully took away the harvest from three bighas cultivated by Virendra Singh, a local Rajput. Liberation supporters say the forward caste people were in fact cultivating government land and the Naxalites only stopped them from cultivating the land and distributed it among the landless Dalits. Some 20 acres of government land, which was earlier being cultivated by Bhumihar and Rajput landlords, became the main bone of contention. After 1989, armed Liberation cadres started giving protection to the landless peasants and the land was snatched from the landlords. The landlords took refuge in the Ranvir Sena, an equally armed and mighty force.
However, emboldened by their early victories, the ML as well as its supporters began demanding equal human treatment. In the backwaters of Bihar a Dalit is not allowed to wear chappals or sit on a cot in front of a man from the upper castes. "Yeh ladai var chasva ki hai (this is a fight for supremacy)," says Fago Pundit of Bathe. "They cannot see us wear chappals and sit on the cot."
Not only in Bathe or other villages of Jehanabad but in the whole of central Bihar, where the Naxalite movement has survived and grown for the last 25-odd years, the fight for land and wages has always been related with the fight against the old feudal order of caste discrimination. After long years of struggle when the Dalits started asserting themselves under the banner of the CPI-ML (Liberation), Party Unity and even the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC), the landlords were prompted to close ranks. They formed their private armies to retain the caste hegemony.
The Ranvir Sena is the most dreaded and organised of them all. In its pamphlets it says that the Communists have been defeated in Russia and eastern Europe, now
they must be uprooted in India also, a line of thinking it shares with the RSS-BJP, points out Liberation general secretary Vinod Mishra. The Sena openly threatens to fill the rivers with the blood of the Naxalites.
Despite the worst-ever caste carnage, the local landlords don't hide their sympathy for the Ranvir Sena. Virendra Singh, a Rajput of Bathe, told Outlook: "Ranvir maale ke atyachar ki pratikriya mein paida hua hai (the Ranvir Sena was organised in reaction to the atrocities of the ML). Every season dozens of armed ML cadre come and cultivate and harvest, we cannot do anything. We can't ever breathe a word against them (Dalits)." Virendra Singh has been accused of hobnobbing with the Ranvir Sena before the Bathe massacre.
Locals say he and a few other upper-caste men had hidden some outsiders, suspected Sena activists, in their houses. "All those people were joined by those who came from across the Sone river before the massacre took place," says Sikund Chaudhary, a local Dalit.
There is little doubt that in the whole struggle the question of caste has eclipsed all other issues of social change, equality, dignity and land reforms. The entire fight, especially in Bhojpur and surrounding areas, has taken a sinister caste-war dimension. Wittingly or unwittingly, all Naxalite groups have been drawn into the caste-battle. This has pushed the Liberation on the defensive. Admits Mishra: "We never said that we are fighting against a particular caste, but the reality is that all the Bhumihars have ganged up together against the poor people."
The struggle in Bihar has upturned the equations of almost all the political parties.Initially, the upper castes were with the Congress. But its entire base started eroding when, under pressure from the forces of social justice, Rajiv Gandhi gave landless peasants an assurance: "Land to the tiller first, paper work later." As Virendra Singh says: "We were with the Congress, but it has ruined us."
Clearly, there is a symbiotic relationship between the BJP and the Ranvir Sena; they not only share similar ideologies, but also enjoy the same upper-case support base. As for the government, it is employing the old tactic of letting two warring factions fight till the finish. With a highly corrupt bureaucracy and an inefficient police force, the Rabri Devi government can only watch the state go up in flames.
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*FILED IN:
AUTHORS: RAJESH JOSHI
TAGS: BIHAR NAXAL/CASTE VIOLENCE | MAOISTS/NAXALS
SECTION: NATIONAL
PLACES: BIHAR
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TRANSLATE INTO:
भाषा चयनित करेंहिन्दीअज़रबैजानीअफ्रीकांसअरबीअर्मीनियाईअल्बेनियाईआइसलैण्डीआयरिशइतालवीइन्डोनेशियाईउर्दूऍस्टोनीऍस्पेरान्तोकन्नड़कॅटलनकोरियाईक्रोएशियाईखमेरगुजरातीगेलिकाईचीनी (परम्परागत)चीनी (सरलीकृत)चेक़जर्मनजापानीजावाईजॉर्जियाईटॅगलॉगडचडैनिशतमिलतुर्कीतेलुगुथाईनार्वेजियनपुर्तगालीपोलिशफारसीफिनिशफ़्रांसीसीबल्गेरियाईबांग्लाबास्कबेलारूसीबोस्नियाईमकदूनियाईमराठीमलयमाल्टीयिडिशयूक्रेनीयूनानीरूसीरोमानीलाओलातवीलातिनीलिथुयानियाईवियतनामीवेल्शसर्बियाईसेबुआनोस्पैनिशस्लोवाकस्लोवेनियाईस्वाहिलीस्वीडिशहंगरियनहमॉन्गहाईटियन क्रियोलहीब्रू
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ALSO IN THIS STORY |
INTERVIEW "This Is The Beginning Of Sena's End" THE Bathe massacre has hardly dampened the morale of Naxalite outfits active in central Bihar, which are now planning to come together to fight the Ranvir Sena. CPI-ML (Liberation) general secretary Vinod Mishra's reaction that "the Sena will be given a befitting reply" has increased fears of a backlash. Mishra spoke to Outlook about related issues. Excerpts. |
BIHAR |
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?204715
THE STATES
Massacre in Shankarbigha
The Republic Day-eve massacre of 23 Dalits by the Ranbir Sena has further intensified the strife between upper-caste landlords and naxalites in central Bihar and strengthened the political mobilisation against the Rabri Devi Government.
KALYAN CHAUDHURI
in Patna
TWENTY-THREE residents of Shankarbigha village in Bihar's Jehanabad district, all from families of landless agricultural workers belonging to the backward communities of Paswan, Chamar, Dushads and Rajwar, were murdered in cold blood on January 25. The killers were members of the outlawed Ranbir Sena, a private army of upper-caste Bhumihar landlords. Five women and seven children, including a 10-month-old, were among those killed.
The incident is but part of a series of massacres that mark the recent history of the central Bihar districts. Killings have occurred with frightful regularity - in Arwal and Kansara in 1986, Golakpur (1987), Malibigha (1988), Lakhawar (1990), Sawanbigha (1992), Aiara (1994), Khadasin (1997), Lakshmanpur-Bathe (1997) and Chouram and Rampur (1998).
Shankarbigha is located near Lakshmanpur-Bathe where the Ranbir Sena killed 61 agricultural workers belonging to backward communities in December 1997. To the east of Shankarbigha is Dhobibigha, a village dominated by upper-caste Bhumihars. To its north is Chouram, another Bhumihar village, where a landlord was killed by naxalites in retaliation for the Lakshmanpur-Bathe massacre. Consi-dering the intense caste and class struggles that go on in central Bihar, Shankarbigha's 68 households were clearly vulnerable. It was more so after the Ranbir Sena's self-styled chief, Brahmeshwar Singh, told a local Hindi daily that his army had planned a genocide much larger in scale than the one it carried out in Lakshmanpur-Bathe, to avenge the killing of seven persons belonging to an upper caste by naxalites at Rampur in November 1998. He stated that the site of the massacre had been chosen and the targets identified. Preparations for the operation were under way, he said.
On the eve of Republic Day, about 100 Ranbir Sena activists carrying firearms descended on Shankarbigha, 126 km from Patna, around 10-30 p.m. They broke into huts and opened fire on people who were asleep. The objectives of the killers were, first, to terrorise the residents, who were getting attracted to the ideology of two prominent naxalite groups - the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Party Unity - and, second, to seek to establish the supremacy of landlords.
According to reports, the killers entered Shankarbigha, which is not accessible by road, by crossing a canal branching off from the Sone river. Ramnath, whose sister and her three children were killed, said: "The toll would have been higher had people from neighbouring villages such as Dhebai, Rupsagarbigha and Karamchebigha not opened fire. Before fleeing the village, the killers shouted 'Ranbir Baba ki jai' (Long live Ranbir Baba) and 'Ranbir Sena jinda rahenge' (Ranbir Sena will remain alive)." Brahmeshwar Singh had declared in the wake of the Rampur killings: "Hum saat ka badla shatak se lenge" (we will avenge the murder of seven of our men by killing 100 people).
Eyewitnesses said the assailants came from the villages of Dhobibigha and Shahbajpur and escaped towards Dhobibigha. They took just 20 minutes for the operation. The survivors were too numb to react. Six-year-old Tarania said she crept under bundles of hay with her one-year-old brother while her mother was shot in the chest. Sonadhari lost her only son and a daughter. The six-member family of Mohali Paswan was wiped out. Jagmohan Sah, his wife and one of their two sons were killed. Bindheswar is among the 14 persons who were seriously injured and are being treated at the Patna Medical College Hospital. He scaled a mud wall and hid himself in a mustard field.
RANJEET KUMAR
At the break of dawn, people from nearby villages made a beeline for Shankarbigha. The bodies were strewn around, and the villagers did not allow the police to remove them until Chief Minister Rabri Devi visited the village. "Give us guns, not compensation. We do not want your money. We want to fight with those who have been killing us and moving around freely," Ramwatia Devi told Rabri Devi when she visited the village along with her husband and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Laloo Prasad Yadav the following day.
Rabri Devi promised to bring the guilty to book. But the villagers pointed out that the perpetrators of the Lakshmanpur-Bathe carnage were yet to be arrested. The Chief Minister announced a compensation of Rs.1.4 lakhs, free rations for six months, a government job and pucca houses for the victims' kin. She also announced that a special court would be set up to try the accused: 24 of them have been identified and six arrested from Dhobibigha village. The administration imposed a collective fine on Dhobibigha village.
Describing the attack as a mindless massacre, police officials of Magadh range said that they had no information about Shankarbigha's residents having links with naxalite groups. Some of them might be supporters of the CPI(M-L) Liberation and the CPI(M-L) Party Unity, but they are poor landless people earning their livelihood by toiling in the fields of the Bhumihars. There were no reports of any land dispute either. Ramjatan Sharma, secretary of the Bihar unit of the CPI(M-L), which claims a marginal following in the village, said: "The villagers are not actively involved in naxalite politics, and we are not leading a movement at Shankarbigha."
THE killings at Shankarbigha and Lakshmanpur-Bathe have focussed attention on the Ranbir Sena and Brahmeshwar Singh. The Ranbir Sena was formed in August 1994 by the landlords of Bhojpur district with the objective of wiping out the naxalite movement in the State by killing their supporters and sympathisers. No important member of the Sena has been arrested till date. Brahmeshwar Singh - a farmer who owns 97 bighas of land - was arrested on two occasions earlier but was released.
Brahmeshwar Singh, a graduate from the Jain College in Arra, along with Dharicharan Chowdhury, a prosperous landlord of Belaur village in Bhojpur district, organised the Ranbir Sena and started the mass killing of Dalits and the landless in order to terrorise them into staying away from naxalites. The Ranbir Sena has 300 well-trained Bhumihar youths as its members and has sophisticated arms in its possession. The Sena has insured the lives of its activists and provides them monthly allowances and other benefits. It depends on the Bhumihar community for financial support. That political patronage, cutting across party and caste lines, is available to the Sena is evident from the fact that despite an official ban no major crackdown has been launched against it.
The situation in central Bihar has become grim with the outlawed naxalite group, the CPI(M-L) People's War, retaliating against the Shankarbigha killings. The People's War is a new, ultra-Left outfit formed with the merger of the People's War Group of Andhra Pradesh and the CPI(M-L) Party Unity of Bihar. An eye for an eye being the guiding principle of politics in Bihar, the CPI(M-L) PW killed two suspected associates of the Ranbir Sena - Bageswar Sharma, a leader of the Jehanabad district unit of the Communist Party of India, and his son Lalan - at Usri Kharia village on January 27, barely 8 km from Shankarbigha.
The retaliatory action is likely to worsen the Ranbir Sena-naxalite strife. Issuing a press statement over telephone, Ranbir Sena's spokesman Shamsher Bahadur Singh claimed responsibility for the Shankarbigha massacre and said that it was a warning to the naxalites. He said that blood would continue to flow unless naxalites restrained themselves.
The CPI(M-L) PW has, meanwhile, come out with a hit list; it has vowed to eliminate the Ranbir Sena and its chief. It said that it had chosen 119 Ranbir Sena targets, which included 35 hideouts and 32 villages. "We will impose capital punishment on the killers and their sympathisers in a ruthless manner," the State secretary of the CPI(M-L) PW, who calls himself Shravana, told journalists.
RANJEET KUMAR
Shravana said his party would continue a sustained campaign against the Sena. As part of this, the CPI(M-L) PW has urged agricultural workers to widen and deepen their economic blockade against rich landlords. Land disputes are at the core of the strife between the Ranbir Sena and the naxalites. "We are going to take drastic steps. We will deliver death to people who carried out the massacres," he said.
THE Shankarbigha massacre drew a chorus of condemnation from various quarters. President K.R. Narayanan virtually ticked off the Bihar Government for laxity and called for "stringent and urgent action" against persons responsible for the slaughter. "Law-enforcing agencies have a responsibility, by timely and decisive intervention, to prevent recurrence of such acts and obvious reprisal action," President Narayanan said in a statement.
On January 30, the Janata Dal and the Left parties, including the CPI(M-L) Liberation, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the CPI observed a bandh in Bihar.
Using the Shankarbigha massacre as another piece of evidence of lawlessness in Bihar, Governor Sunder Singh Bhandari has presented to Union Home Minister L.K. Advani, a fresh case for the dismissal of the Rabri Devi Government. Nearly five months ago Bhandari had made out a case for dismissing the State Government on the grounds of constitutional breakdown in the State, but the President returned for reconsideration a recommendation to this effect by the Union Cabinet.
The massacre has made the detractors of Laloo Prasad renew their demand for President's Rule in Bihar. The Bharatiya Janata Party-Samata Party alliance, which has consistently demanded the imposition of President's Rule, has been joined by the Janata Dal's sole Member of Parliament from Bihar, Ram Vilas Paswan. A Janata Dal delegation met the President and submitted a memorandum seeking the dismissal of the RJD Government.
However, the BJP's efforts to gain political mileage from the carnage and put the Rabri Devi Government on the mat have been undermined by the intense power struggle in the party's State unit. While the pro-Mandal and pro-Other Backward Classes (OBC) sections in the Bihar BJP, led by Sushil Modi, Sarju Rai and Nand Kishore Yadav, are believed to be keen to use the Shankarbigha killings to win over the OBCs, the Central leader in charge of the State BJP, Kailashpati Mishra, does not want to antagonise Bhumihars and Thakurs. Besides, the Bihar BJP is a weaker force incapable of planning an effective campaign against the RJD Government. The party suffers from groupism and rivalry following the recent expulsion of three of its leaders - Tarakant Jha, former State president, Yashodanand Singh, former State vice-president, and Kameshwar Paswan, former MP.
THE Left parties' fresh campaign against the growing lawlessness in Bihar under Rabri Devi seems to be an uncomfortable development for Laloo Prasad as it stands in the way of his efforts to make an entry into the proposed Third Front. The CPI and the CPI(M) are not inclined to share a platform with the RJD chief against whom the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is preparing fresh charge-sheets in the fodder scam cases. Laloo Prasad's joy on being released on interim bail on January 8 appears to be short-lived as the CBI has completed the field work for filing charge-sheets in at least three cases - RC-5A/98, RC-42A/96 and RC-38A/96. The first case deals with possession of assets disproportionate to his known sources of income and the second and third pertain to the conspiracy aspect of the Rs.950-crore fodder scam.
DEEPAK KUMAR
Laloo Prasad may be remanded to judicial custody again once the CBI charge-sheets him in RC-5A/98 and the designated court takes cognizance of it. Laloo Prasad has secured bail in RC-20A/96 and RC-64A/96. U.N. Biswas, Joint Director of the CBI, has submitted a progress report on the investigations into the various cases to the Patna High Court Bench which monitors the case.
The RJD chief, who is lying low for now, is not politically comfortable. He has virtually lost an ally: the Congress(I) is on the verge of withdrawing support to the Rabri Devi Government.
Assembly elections in Bihar are due by March 2000. With several fodder scam cases pending against him, Laloo Prasad is not too sure if he would be able to campaign for his party then.
http://www.frontline.in/static/html/fl1604/16040370.htm
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