Why Media's Silence on Forbesganj Killings in Bihar ?

The Economic and Political Weekly

June 25, 2011

Editorial

Silence on Killings in Bihar

Nitish Kumar is able to brazen out the police killings in Forbesganj, thanks to the silence of the media.

On the afternoon of 3 June, the police in Forbesganj block of Araria district of Bihar shot, stomped on and beat to death four unarmed villagers and injured at least nine others, in what is, by all accounts, a wanton act of state violence. The dead include a pregnant Shazmeena who received six bullet wounds in her hand, spine and stomach, six-year-old Naushad who was shot twice in his spine, 22-year-old Mukhtar Ansari who was shot in his head, chest, stomach and spine and 18-year-old Moham- mad Mustafa, who was shot six times and then when not yet dead, had a policeman repeatedly jump and stomp on his injured body and kick it mercilessly to make sure he died. All the bullet wounds of the dead and injured are in the head, chest, stomach, hands and spine. Not only do these indicate a clear intent to kill in the firing, it also shows that those who were running away or had fallen down were shot by a trigger-happy police.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar appears to have decided to brazen out the incident, alleging that some activists were making a mountain out of a molehill. Police officials have said that they only fired in “self-defence” when villagers supposedly threw stones and brandished firearms. However, testimonies of the victims, video footage and photos show that the Bihar police shot unarmed villagers who were not even protesting at the time. Given the manner in which the state machinery already appears to have absolved the killers of Forbesganj and is busy building alibis for them, there can be little hope that the victims will receive any justice from the judicial inquiry that Nitish Kumar has reluctantly ordered.

The villagers of Bhajanpura village, on the outskirts of Forbesganj town, have been protesting against construction of a boundary wall for a proposed factory which is linked to an important leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Ashok Agarwal, who is a lieutenant of Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi. The boundary wall would block Bhajanpura’s only access road. On 1 June, representatives of the administration and the factory assured the villagers that the wall would only be built once an alternative road had been provided to them. However, on the morning of 3 June, the residents of the village found that their road had been blocked overnight by a newly constructed factory wall. They gathered in large numbers, broke down the wall and started accessing the road as they had been doing for at least the past six decades. The police arrived a few hours later and, it appears from witnesses, fired randomly at those using this road.

Thus the dead include a pregnant woman on her way to the hospital and a young man going to buy vegetables.
While the entire incident is shocking, the conduct of the political leadership of Bihar has been outrageous. What has added an edge to the police violence is that the victims are all Muslims while the instigators of the violence appear to be among the state leadership of the BJP with links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Some activists have charged the latter organisation with creating the conditions for a re-enactment of Gujarat. This incident is now being used by political opponents of Nitish Kumar to hit at his support among the Muslims of the state. Nitish Kumar has foregrounded the demands of the Pasmanda (dalit and back- ward class) Muslims and has thus managed to fracture the Muslim electoral base which had traditionally been led by the elites of the community. His electoral success has depended crucially on bringing the Pasmanda Muslims into an alliance with upper caste Hindu groups, the latter forming the core support groups of the BJP and the JD(U). However, the killing of Pas- manda Muslims in Forbesganj to help an upper caste factory owner close to the BJP leadership can unravel the alliance and it appears that the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress are using this incident precisely for this purpose. Unfortunately, such cyni- cal political games may further deny the victims of Forbesganj the chance of getting justice.

Apart from such self-serving support, few have stood up for the victims of Forbesganj. It has only been the National Commission for Minorities (NCM), led by its chairman, Wajahat Habibullah, and member Syeda Bilgrami Imam, which visited Bhajanpura and heard the testimonies of the victims. Nitish Kumar refused to meet the NCM team and has so far not even announced compensation for those killed in the police firing or suspended those policemen who have been shown to be prima facie guilty.

The silence of the mainstream media about the Forbesganj killings, even when photos and videos of police brutality were available is not only disturbing but a pointer to the very nature of Indian media today. Nitish Kumar is the anointed “best” chief minister of India and nothing, it appears, can pierce his Teflon coating. While the poor, unarmed villagers of Forbesganj were being shot dead to facilitate the operation of the factory of a ruling party leader, the mainstream media was busy hyperventilating on the theatrics of a yoga guru and sundry “civil society”. A dispassionate analysis of the media’s role in this entire affair will suggest a deliberate attempt to protect Nitish Kumar and his government. This exposes the politics and prejudices which underlie our “free press”.

Is it still possible for India’s civil society, properly defined, and its democracy to find justice for the victims of Forbesganj? Can we hope that the perpetrators of the murders – not just the policemen involved, but also those who gave the orders for such action – are brought to stand trial?