The CPI (ML) held a Sankalp Sabha on 12 April 2016 at the Chamadiya maidan in Baliya subdivision of Begusarai to pay tributes to Com. Mahesh Ram and Com. Rampravesh Ram. Attended by a large number of people, the Sankalp Sabha was addressed by CPI (ML) General Secretary Com. Dipankar Bhattacharya who said that the martyrdom of Com. Mahesh Ram and Com. Rmpravsh would not go in vain; the people would give a befitting reply. In recent days, attacks on students, youth, intellectuals, and cultural activists have greatly increased, with dalits being the focal targets of these attacks. While at Hyderabad Central University, oppression by the administrative and political system forced dalit scholar Rohith Vemula to commit suicide, Com. Mahesh Ram and Rampravesh Ram who were engaged with feudal forces on land struggles in the villages of Begusarai have been murdered by the feudal in connivance with the administration and police.
Com. Dipankar further said that Mahesh Ram and Rohith Vemula are today’s Bhagat Singhs in the present context, who were trying to highlight the dream of building a new India. There is not much difference between Modi and Nitish; feudal forces are raising their heads under the rule of both and are unleashing calculated and well-planned attacks on dalits in order to crush the voices of dissent. After such murders, the silence and insensitivity of the police and administration are an indication that these incidents have been carried out with the connivance of the State government. This attitude of the Nitish government is an insult to the people’s mandate he got in the elections. This government has betrayed the poor and the marginalized. This is the reason that in spite of requesting protection from the administration, they were brutally murdered by the feudal forces.
Com. Dipankar said that this double murder has exposed the hypocrisy of the self-professed ‘love’ for dalits claimed by the Bihar government. Therefore, a high level enquiry must be held to invsetigate these murders and the culprits should be arrested and punished without delay. Today the need is for dalits, poor, intellectuals, cultural activists, farmers, workers, students and youth to speak out against the government as well as communal-feudal forces; only then will we be able to walk on the road shown by Bhagat Singh and Ambedkar to build a new India. He announced that a memorial would be built for the two martyrs at Maksudanpur Diyara village.
Addressing the meeting, Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Mazdoor Sabha National General Secretary, Com. Rajaram Singh said that the law and order system in Bihar has become subservient to criminals. These double murders are a clear example of this; the people would surely give a fitting reply to this. Party MLA Com. Sudama Prasad said that we have raised the issue of the murder of these young dalit leaders in the Assembly, and have demanded action against the Baliya DSP. The CPI(ML) has always fought the battles of the poor, dalits, and oppressed. Protest marches have been held across Bihar against these murders. The Party called for a Begusarai ‘bandh’ and made the bandh successful, driving away feudal goons who tried to deter the bandh. He further said that if the police, administration and government do not render justice, the people will give them suitable punishment. A murder charge should also be filed against the Baliya DSP in this case, as he is hand-in-glove with the culprits. He should have been immediately suspended, but the government took no action.
