Allies of pre-2005 rulers have no right to speak: Manjhi slams Kharge over Nawada arson

New Delhi, Sep 19 (SocialNews.XYZ) Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Thursday hit out at Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge after he accused the NDA government of indifference and apathy towards Dalits and referred to the arson of over 100 houses of the Mahadalit community in Bihar’s Nawada district over a land dispute.

The minister for micro, small and medium enterprises said that many such incidents took place during the RJD era, but during the NDA tenure the number of incidents only decreased.

Speaking to IANS, Jitan Ram Manjhi said, “He should remember and compare it with the previous days. Earlier, every incident was resolved by the Panchayat. That is not happening now. It is not right to say that the law and order situation in Bihar is bad and that there is Jungle Raj in the state. People who were in power before 2005 or who are their supporters have no right to speak.”

Manjhi claimed that as Bihar Chief Minister he had spoken out against such incidents.

“When I was the Chief Minister of Bihar or in the Assembly, we raised our voices against the fact that some sections of people who cannot afford land, especially the Scheduled Castes (SCs) who were living on the land provided by the Bhoodan movement, were being exploited by people associated with certain political parties,” he told IANS.

Manjhi claimed to have started the Bhumi Dakhal Dehani movement, a land reform drive in Bihar, which helped Dalits regain land they owned but which had been occupied by others.

“But it has stopped now and this is the reason that our poor people living somewhere on the land of the Bihar government are falling prey to the land mafia. The land mafia thinks that if these people are removed, we will use the land in many ways and sell it for a high price,” he added.

“Mafiagiri is going on in Bihar and they are luring some people from the SC community and pressurising them to do such shady things, which resulted in the fire that destroyed 100 houses. However, the Superintendent of Police has not given us any information about the deaths in the fire. I will go there on September 22 and collect the land papers. I will also give them the compensation and will try to build houses for them on the land under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana,” he further stated.

Source: IANS

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