Lakshmanpur Bathe, April 18: The trail of blood in Bihar in general and Jehanabad in particular invariably leads to Lakshmanpur-Bathe, where on a chilly December evening in 1997, 59 lower-caste villagers were killed by Ranbir Sena goons.

The killers did not discriminate between women and men, a one-year-old and a 60-year-old. The massacre became Bathe’s claim to fame — Bihar’s very own “Sholay” village.

In the immediate aftermath of the incident, helicopters bearing the Prime Minister, chief minister, Union ministers and their promises swooped down on the stretch of fallow land that separates the Harijan huts and the river Son. It took 59 deaths and a Prime Minister’s visit for the first road to the village to come up.

Seven years later, much has changed in Bathe. Its latest acquisition is a concrete plaque bearing the names of the shaheeds — a gift of the CPI (ML).

The CPI (ML), along with the People’s War Group and the Maoist Communist Centre, tried to fashion some semblance of a peasant resistance in the village. But the monetary compensation for the dead had already found its way to the people by then. And this was no small amount — Rs 1 lakh each from the Centre and the state governments for every dead adult person.

Lakshmanji, a Malla Chowdhry, lost 11 members of his family, including four sons, in the massacre. He is bitter that the killers still roam free and threaten him from time to time. But with the interest from the compensation money, he has turned his sorry little mud hut into a reasonably large brick house. Amid a cluster of mud huts stand two brick houses. They belong to Lakshmanji and another Paswan family, which lost seven members.

Despite some attempts made by the CPI (ML) leadership in Jehanabad, the case that was opened with police has not moved to the judiciary. Nor have letters sent to the Prime Minister and the chief minister mentioning the names of the guilty produced the desired result.

The krishi hartal, which the Paswans, Kahars, Mallas, Ravidas and Rajbanshis of Bathe resorted to after the massacre, has fizzled out, with some fleeing the village and the rest gradually going back to business for 3 kg of paddy daily.

Even now, a lower-caste farmer is not allowed entry into the Bhumihar area with his shoes on. The Kahars and Mallas still walk miles to the polling booths to find rifle-wielding Ranbir Sena men, ready to drive them away, lest they vote against the upper-caste candidate. Election is a word that makes the residents of Bathe laugh.

In Jehanabad, blood comes cheap. Between 1997 and February 2004, over 200 Harijans have been killed in Damuha, Sankarbigha, Pariyari Mathiya, Taula Tari and other villages — but less than a score at a time. The villages have not been showered with either ministerial commiserations or compensation packages.

Their only solace has been the retaliation executed by the CPI (ML) and the PWG on Ranbir Sena men in Chauram, Barhaita and Ballopur. But in Lakshmanpur Bathe, revenge is the last thing on people’s mind. The assurance of at least Rs 1,816 at the end of the month helps.

In a democracy, the dead, too, have their uses.