Much media hype has been manufactured about Bihar’s Nitish Government’s model of ‘good governance’ (sushasan) and development, which have supposedly made the notorious criminality and feudal violence things of the past. The murder of Comrade Bhaiyyaram Yadav, CPI(ML)’s Rohtas District Secretary, by feudal criminals enjoying BJP-JD(U) patronage, has busted such hype, proving that feudal forces and criminals are striking back with renewed confidence in Nitish’s Bihar.

Comrade Bhaiyyaram Yadav was shot dead in Nasiriganj, by armed assailants on 14 March evening. The police had failed to come to the spot even after being informed of the shooting, and the accused assailants are yet to be arrested.

A member of the CPI(ML)’s State Committee, Comrade Bhaiyyaram had been leading several struggles against instances of feudal atrocities and criminal violence. He had organized a major struggle demanding punishment for the notorious feudal strongmen responsible for the gang-rape and murder of a 6-year-old dalit girl late last year. However, the rapists, who are known to be close to the ruling BJP-JD(U), brazenly roam free in Rohtas. Instead, Comrade Bhaiyyaram had been jailed on cooked-up charges of assault. He was killed soon after being released on bail – at the behest of the same feudal criminals backed by the ruling combine whose arrogance and atrocities he had been challenging.

One of Nitish Kumar’s first acts, on becoming CM for the first time, had been to disband the Justice Amir Das Commission that was about to submit its report on the links of political parties to the feudal private army, the Ranveer Sena, that had perpetrated massacres against dalit landless poor. Since then, the Nitish Government has displayed its loyalty to its primary support base of feudal sections, time and again. While the Nitish Government’s promises to mahadalits, MBCs, and sharecroppers stand betrayed, it is the feudal forces which have felt emboldened. In Nitish’s Bihar, Ranveer Sena chief Brahmeshwar Singh goes scot free, but a popular mahadalit leader, along with nine other mahadalits, has been sentenced to death on flimsy grounds for the Amausi massacre.

In sharp contrast to such blatant hypocrisy and opportunism, Comrade Bhaiyyaram represented the idealism of young people inspired by the values of Bhagat Singh.

From Bhagat Singh to Bhaiyyaram, the ruling classes have killed revolutionaries but failed to stifle their ideas and politics. Defying murder and repression, the legacy of Bhagat Singh will continue to live in the example of youth like Comrade Bhaiyyaram and Comrade Chandrashekhar – inspiring future generations of young people!

Red Salute to Comrade Bhaiyyaram Yadav

Comrade Bhaiyyaram Yadav was shot dead in Nasiriganj, by armed assailants on 14 March evening. He had just been supervising the preparations for installation of a statue of Bhagat Singh (to be inaugurated on 23 March), and was returning to the party office, when he was shot in the gut by armed men on motorbikes. Even after being intimated that Comrade Bhaiyyaram was shot and lay injured, the police did not come to the spot.

Comrade Bhaiyyaram Yadav was killed by feudal forces backed by the ruling BJP-JD(U) combine, because he had been at the forefront of people’s struggles in the area against feudal violence. Notably, Comrade Bhaiyyaram had led a struggle taking on the powerful rapists of a 6-year-old Dalit girl, included the Rajput strongman Luv Singh, known to be close to the BJP and JD(U)). The local police and administration have yet to arrest the accused rapists.

On 9 February, former pramukh Anil Singh and his brother, ex-Zila Parishad member Babhan Bahadur Singh, also well-known to be close to BJP-JD(U), were involved in a shoot-out against those from oppressed castes who objected to their riding motorbikes at high speed in residential areas. The police, instead of arresting the instigators falsely implicated Comrade Bhaiyyaram in this case on cooked-up charges of assault, and had him jailed. Once Com. Bhaiyyaram was released on bail, the feudal forces in collusion with BJP-JD(U) leaders and local administration, have assassinated him.

Bhaiyyaram joined the CPI(ML) in 1986, inspired by the party’s resistance to feudal terror in Nasiriganj (Karakat) and Bhojpur. As an activist of the party and youth organization, he helped organize the youth from among the rural poor. Since 2007, he was the Secretary of the party’s Rohtas District Committee, and in 2008, was elected to the Bihar State Committee.

Hundreds of local youth and common people joined the funeral procession of their beloved ‘Bhaiyya’, and protests were held all over Bihar on 15 March. The CPI(ML)’s bandh in the Shahabad region (districts of Ara, Rohtas, Kaimur, Buxar) on 17 March evoked a good response and support from people. On the same day, a protest was held at Parliament Street in New Delhi, demanding that the JD(U)-BJP Government of Bihar stop protecting the killers, and take action against the DM and SP of Rohtas district. On 23 March, Bhagat Singh Martyrdom Day for which Comrade Bhaiyyaram had been preparing, will be observed as a Sankalp Sabha against the murder, to be addressed by party General Secretary Comrade Dipankar Bhattacharya.