Forbesganj Firing

Forbesganj firing

The Forbesganj firing happened on June 3rd in the middle of the SA rush. It was one of the most shocking episodes in the sangathans existence. A four member JJSS team went to the site and did a small investigation. The facts as laid out by Tehelka seem right. People had been protesting the closure of a road which connected their village Bhajanpur and Rampur to the local market hospital etc by the Auro Sundaram Company. Earlier due to heavy political pressure from the ruling coalition the administration adopted a heavy hand approach and assisted the company in closing the road by constructing a wall in spite of fierce opposition from the villagers. Villagers decided to break down the wall on 3rd June that hindered their use of the road. What followed was police repression on those who had little to do with the actual breaking down of the wall, five lives including that of an 8 month old baby were lost in the police firing.

It is clear that the industrialist who is a vidhayak (Memeber of Legislative Council (BJP)) of the ruling combine has a hand in the whole episode. To our minds it is no coincidence that the deputy chief minister visited Araria just before the episode for a wedding, the DM was on leave on the day of firing, there was no DDC posted in the district and the SP and SDO were involved in this barbaric episode. The sad part is that no action was taken against the SP and the SDO, not a suspension, not even a transfer, the message loud and clear ‘People don’t matter, if you listen to the netagan, they will protect you no matter what wrong you have done”.