Jharkhand Park in the memory of freedom fighters stopped, it would have been OK'ed had it been a temple

Times Wire Service

Hindutva's anti dalit-anti tribal agenda

13 July, 2011


By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

It is shocking to notice that former minister Chandra Mohan Prasad, who is now an important member of Jharkhand BJP and hails from Giridih town, has objected to the park being developed int the district headquarter of Giridih in the memory of Birsa Munda, Baba Saheb Ambedkar, Siddha Kanhu, who was a freedom fighter from Jharkhand and other martyrs.

The local administration had decided to develop four mark in Giridih town in memory of these legends. There is a statue of Birsa Munda in the town but it is not developed by the government but by the people of the area. Parks and memories of great people of the region and state are our tribute to those legends and ensure that our children remain in touch with history.

How can any one object to memories of these great legends of our society as well as our country. Can Jharkhand think without understanding the contribution of Birsa. Can the Dalits of India think without understanding Baba Saheb Ambedkar. Mr Chandra Mohan Prasad wrote to Chief Secretary Jharkhand government against such modernisation of these park which he claimed was without the permission of the Nagar Panchayats.

One need to ask as what prompted Prasad to stop the modification of these parks which were a tribute to Birsa Munda, Ambedkar as well as martyrs like Bhagat Singh. If there were a Hanuman Mandir or a Ram temple, these ministers would have thrown all the objections to a side and gone ahead with their work.

It is shameful for Jharkhand government to allow such manipulations of the caste Hindus. A government in the Adivasi-Dalit majoritarian area can not have park in memory of Birsa and Ambedkar. We protest against such negative attitude of the state government and ask them to start work on it.

The State government must order rebuilding of these parks. They can not victim of the petty politics in which Chandra Mohan and his party are engaged in. The honor and dignity of Dalit Tribal in Jharkhand is a must and state must not try to do anything which fuel popular protest and anger. It is the duty of the government to honor our icons and not allow them to be degraded by such negative forces.

With such negative act the local BJP leaders have exposed that they can never be the well wishers of Dalit Adivasis at all.

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