New Delhi: It was a usual evening for the Mahadalit families returning to their homes in Krishna Nagar village in Bihar’s Nawada after a day’s work till they heard the gunshots and screams. A group of men had opened fire in their hamlet.
Families started to run away, but the men then set the entire Dalit tola on fire, Sumitra Devi, who lost her house to the blaze, told ThePrint. “Two generations of my family had lived in that house. Everything that we had is gone — rice, cereals, clothes, and even our hens and goats,” said Devi, a daily wager.
Devi said the attackers set fire to over 80 houses at roughly 6 pm on Wednesday. Of those 80 houses, 21 have been reduced to ashes, while others remain partially burnt. Firefighters called to extinguish the blaze could bring the situation under control as late as 11 pm.
Devi said the attack was a deliberate attempt to take away the Dalit community’s land since the ‘mafia’ had attacked villagers earlier, as well, asking them to empty their houses.
“We would just say — this land belongs to us,” she said, recalling past incidents.
Ravidas, a rickshaw driver living in the village, said that at least 150 people entered their hamlet and continued shooting incessantly. “Nandu Paswan (and his men) did this to us. They are the mafia,” he said.
The authorities, he said, have now handed over some tarpaulins to the villagers to live under.
The reason behind the violence, he said, is a long-standing land dispute. The Mahadalits in Nawada have been residing on a large piece of land, which another party, including the Paswans, is now claiming.
“They had been passing threats to make us leave. But we would tell them that we are on land given to us by the government,” said Ravidas.
The police, on Thursday, registered the case FIR, under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, the Arms Act, 1959, and the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
“Fifteen people have been arrested till now. Many of them are Paswans. They believed that the land where the community settled belonged to them, so they wanted to take over,” Sanjay Kumar, inspector at the Mufassil police station, told ThePrint. The police are further investigating the matter.
“They did this to us because we are Dalits. We are only demanding our houses be rebuilt,” Devi said.
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‘Their lives don’t matter’
Reacting to the incident, former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union general secretary Chintu Kumari told ThePrint that the ongoing land survey in Bihar triggered the incident. “The mafia has become active. They want to remove the poor from the land, but this is not new.”
Terming the Krishna Nagar incident as worrying, Kumari said, “The lives of Dalits have become so inexpensive that anyone can kill them, burn them, and nobody will take action. How do they (the mafia) get this power? They must be getting support from the government.”
Kumari said the Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) government in Bihar talks about the upliftment of the Dalits, but the reality is different. “They are only important for votes, but their lives do not matter.”
Kumari said the community in Krishna Nagar — already poor — has been left with nothing after the arson attack. “They have sky over their heads and just one pair of clothes that they had been wearing at the time of the incident,” she said.
Bihar’s Scheduled Castes and Tribe Welfare Department Minister Janak Ram has said the government will take strict action against the goons. “Those who lost houses in the fire will get houses and Rs 1 lakh in compensation. Whoever has committed the crime will be held responsible,” Janak Ram told media persons after the incident, adding that Nitish Kumar’s position in the National Democratic Alliance will help achieve the same.
On the other hand, Bihar Legislative Assembly Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav pointed fingers at Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a post on X. “Maha jungle raj (reign). Demon raj…. There is fire all over Bihar under the rule of Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is carefree. NDA allies are unaware! The poor burn and die — what do they care? Atrocities on Dalits will not be tolerated,” Yadav wrote.
“The Bihar government and the state police must take immediate and strict action against all the culprits of this shameful crime and provide complete justice to the victim families by rehabilitating them,” Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi said in a post.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)