Ramanavami riots expose widening communal faultlines in country

Tearing into the Mahagathbandhan government in Bihar for “failing to check” communal violence, Shah asserted that rioters will be hung upside down if the BJP forms the government in the state in 2025. The chief minister has failed in controlling the riots, Shah charged and said Nitish was being controlled by Lalu’s men. Jungle Raj had returned to Bihar, he remarked. Bihar CM Nitish Kumar on Wednesday (April 5) rejected the BJP and AIMIM’s allegations of administrative lapses in the recent communal riots at Bihar Sharif and Sasaram towns during the Ramanavami processions and said the communal disturbances at both the places were carefully orchestrated by “some people.”But all administrative officers did a good job and successfully controlled it. CPI(ML) secretary general Dipankar Bhattacharyareferred to Shah’s speech at Nawada wherein the Union home minister “brazenly called for a mandate for the BJP within hours of communal violence, thereby betraying their electoral game plan”. It may be mentioned that the Left  supports the Bihar government from outside. In a meeting with the chief minister, Nitish Kumar, he alleged that the recent communal riots in the state “exposed” the BJP’s “electoral game plan.” Dipankar also expressed anguish that during the riots in Bihar Sharif, a 100-year-old madrassa and a library attached to it were gutted.  “There is no problem in Bihar now. Whatever the Deputy CM has said is right. There are some undesirable elements in Bihar that create such riots in the state. In recent days, there were some disturbances but the state Government controlled the situation within eight hours. Even when Nitish Kumar was in alliance with NDA, he jailed the son of a union minister as he tried to create communal disturbance in Bhagalpur,” said Janata Dal (United) President Lalan Singh while reacting the allegations of Bharatiya Janata Party on the law-and-order situation of Bihar. “They try creating communal riots in the state but Nitish Kumar does not compromise with the peace, law and order of the state,” he added. He blamed the BJP for creating communal riots in Bihar. Hooghly and Howrah in West Bengal; Lakhisarai, Nalanda and Kishanganj in Bihar; Dhanbad in Jharkhand; Aurangabad and Malad in Maharashtra; Khandwa and Khargone in Madhya Pradesh; Balidih and Vadodara (multiple incidents) in Gujarat; Mathura in Uttar Pradesh; Jammu City in Jammu and Kashmir;  Hyderabad in Telangana. Clashes broke out between two groups during a Ramanavami procession in West Bengal’s Hooghly district on 2nd April evening and spread to some parts of neighbouring Howrah district. Over 45 people were arrested, prohibitory orders were imposed and internet was suspended to bring the situation under control.