The CPI (ML) held a 24 hour hunger strike in front of the Muzaffarpur Collectorate on 10-11 April 2017 in the second phase of the land rights Satyagraha to mark the Champaran Satyagraha centenary year, during which they raised slogans exposing the Modi and Nitish governments’ eyewash in the name of Satyagraha and hypocritical ‘following’ of Gandhi, demanding land rights for the poor and stopping the construction of the destructive Baghmati dam and embankment. Comrades Shatrughan Sahni, Ramnandan Paswan, Bindeshwar Sah, Sharmila Devi, Dika Kumari’s mother Kusumi Devi, Indrajit Kumar, Raj Kishore Sahni, Virendra Paswan, Deepchand Prasad, Phulo Devi, Sunaina Devi, Dr Shivpriya, Ravindra Kishore Singh, Santosh Kumar, and Madhusudan sat on the hunger strike. Large numbers of people including women, workers, and farmers were present at the venue where, along with slogans, a meeting was also held. The 24 hour hunger strike ended on 11 April with Party leaders offering juice to those sitting on the strike. A charter of demands was submitted to the Chief Minister through the DM with the following demands: Champaran Satyagraha centenary year should be declared as Land Reform and Land Rights Year; 5 decimal land for housing for the poor and the landless; possession for those holding parchas; parchas for poor settled ancestrally on urban and rural land; strict measures to stop land mafia-administration nexus from evicting the poor and capturing land; stopping construction of the destructing Baghmati dam; constituting a review committee and taking back all false cases slapped on the protesters.
