Mumtaz Alam | India Tomorrow
PATNA, JUNE 23— Within two weeks of a mob attack on a Muslim youth by people allegedly belonging to a Hindu-right group at Motihari, the headquarters of the East Champaran district, efforts have been made to convert an unused government land inside the Muslim population of a village in West Champaran district into a Hindu cremation ground, thus triggering communal tension.
As Bihar is going to assembly polls in October this year, this is being seen as a bid by interested groups to stoke communal violence in the state to polarize the society on communal lines for political gains.
The Muslim residents of Basra village under the Majholia block in West Champaran district of Bihar have objected to the illegal bid to use the government land as a cremation ground.
This is despite the fact that village Hindus already have a separate cremation ground and Muslims, too, have their own graveyard.
The unused government land which some of the local Hindus want to convert into a cremation ground, is adjacent to a state-run Urdu medium school near the Muslim population of the village. In the last fortnight, two attempts have been made to cremate bodies in this unused plot.
Local leaders of United Front of Religious and Muslim Organizations, an umbrella body of district units of all Muslim organizations, have submitted a memorandum to the District Magistrate in this connection on June 19.
“The Government Basra Urdu Middle School is located in the middle of a Muslim population. Adjacent to the school is a vacant (ghair mazrua) piece of land. People from a certain religion want to capture this piece of land and use it for cremation even though there is a cremation ground at a short distance and cremation has been taking place there,” the memorandum said.
Giving details about the sequence of events, the memorandum said, “On June 8, some people from the Hindu community gathered to capture the land. Muslim residents opposed their move to set up cremation ground in the middle of the Muslim neighbourhood, leading to verbal clashes. Those who had come to capture the piece of land, returned. On June 9, hundreds of Muslim residents submitted a memorandum to the DM and sought resolution of the issue. Within hours of getting the memorandum, the district administration officials reached the spot, deployed police force there and restricted both communities from any religious act there. The situation remained peaceful for some days. On June 18, a woman died and people from the Hindu community reached the controversial spot for cremation instead of the official cremation ground. The policemen already deployed there tried to stop them but they did not budge and did cremation there. They also raised objectionable slogans and damaged the walls and gate of the graveyard there, leading to tension between the two communities”.
The Muslim delegation told the DM that if no permanent resolution of the land is found, this dispute would continue and maybe a big incident may occur some day.
“We request you to keep the plot in government control by constructing a community centre or a primary health centre or an anganvadi centre on it and if it takes time, then boundary walls should be erected around the plot immediately”, reads the memorandum.
Muslim leaders submitted memorandum to DM in Bettiah on June 19, 2020 and sought resolution of the dispute.
The memorandum was signed by Maulana Najmuddin Qasmi, president, Tanzeem Aimma-e Masajid; Maulana Hasan Muawia Nadwi, district president, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind; Maulana Amir Arafat Qasmi, General Secretary, Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind; Maulana Mahboob Alam Nomani, president, Tanzeem Imarat Shariah; and Niyaz Ahmed Qasmi, vice president, Tanzeem Aimma-e Masajid.
Earlier this month, a Muslim teenager identified as Mohammed Israel was assaulted by a group of people allegedly belonging to Bajang Dal in Mehsi area of Motihari, the headquarters of East Champaran district. According to reports, the attackers wanted him to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ which he refused.
Maulana Hasan Muawia Nadwi of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) said that those who insisted on cremation on the plot in the middle of Muslim neighbourhood in West Champaran, also belonged to Bajrang Dal.
The state is currently having a coalition government led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of JDU and BJP. Nitish had fought the 2015 Assembly polls in alliance with RJD and Congress and the alliance got thumping majority and Nitish became CM and RJD’s youth icon Tejaswi Yadav Deputy CM. However, in July 2017, Nitish parted ways with the alliance and joined BJP-led NDA and formed new government and this time BJP’s Sushil Modi became his deputy. Barring the two years (2015-2017), Nitish has been with NDA for around two decades and ruling the state with the inside support of BJP.
