Nitish Kumar’s government in Bihar came under heavy criticism from the opposition on Wednesday, the day of the first of the three-phase assembly elections, with rivals drawing comparisons between the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and Monday’s incident in Munger, where a young man was shot dead. during a police crackdown on a religious procession. The district police, which is headed by the daughter of a close associate of Kumar, were condemned for having acted similarly to ‘General Dyer’, while the government was compared to the ‘British Raj’ under Lord Chelmsford, the then viceroy. from India.
The incident, allegedly triggered by local police who opposed a procession to submerge a Durga idol Monday night in a flagrant violation of social distancing rules, had sparked a pitched battle between staff at security and devotees. “Some antisocial elements threw stones at a police party, leaving at least 30 of our personnel injured.
The SHO at Kotwali Police Station has suffered a serious head injury. The rebel mob also fired a few shots, resulting in the unfortunate death of one person and leaving six others wounded, “Munger Police Superintendent Lipi Singh said after the incident. Lipi Singh is the daughter of a former IAS officer and JD (The leader of Rajya Sabha de U), RCP Singh.
Tension gripped the district after the incident and the heavy deployment of police to keep the situation under control appeared to have overshadowed the voting that took place in the three segments of the assembly there. Overall turnout was around 47 percent, far less than the average of 71 seats that went to the polls in the first phase of the elections.
RCP Singh was harassed by angry protesters demanding action against “guilty officials” when he visited Begusarai, where elections are scheduled for November 3. Begusarai is the Lok Sabha headquarters of BJP leader and Union Minister Giriraj Singh, who condemned the Munger incident and sought action against “officials who make mistakes, no matter how connected they are.
The opposition Gran Alianza, made up of RJD, Congress and three left-wing parties, called a press conference early Wednesday morning to demand a “Superior Court-supervised investigation” into the incident. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, who is the opposition coalition’s top ministerial candidate, also sought to hear from Kumar and his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi, a senior BJP leader, “who allowed the Munger police to act as the general Dyer “.
The simile was endorsed by AICC Secretary General Randeep Surjewala, who sat next to Yadav and took shots at the BJP, claiming that Hindu religious processions were being attacked under his watch. AICC spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhavi, who delivered a press conference in the national capital later that day, compared “Sushasan Babu,” an often used nickname for Nitish Kumar, to British Army officer Reginald Dyer. who had presided over the military action in Amritsar. .
Rajesh Ranjan aka Pappu Yadav, a former nonconformist MP who has introduced his own Jan Adhikar Party team, tweeted: “If Munger SP Lipi Singh is General Dyer, then who is Lord Chelmsford, the main conspirator behind the massacre? Who is he? responsible for the violence? against young people who simply wanted to visarjan (immersion) of the idol of Mother Durga? Is it Niths, Narendra Modi or the combination BJP-JD (U)? “.
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