Fear has driven out Rajesh Kumar, 33, and his wife Rinju Devi, 28, from their life of security in distant Mehsana in Gujarat and plunged them and their child into a cesspool of uncertainty.
The couple, along with their four-year-old daughter Saloni, arrived in Patna on Monday, travelling over 2,000km in a general bogie of the Gandhidham-Kamakhya Express for around 40 hours.
They are among the hundreds of people who are returning to their native places in Bihar following hate attacks on migrant workers in Gujarat. The attacks were triggered by the alleged involvement of Bihari migrants in the rape of a 14-month-old girl in Sabarkantha district on September 28.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Rajesh, a resident of Muzaffarpur, said: “I worked in a leather factory in Mehsana district of Gujarat. Two days ago, a few people came to my house and told me to leave the state or else be ready to face the consequences. They had rods and hockey sticks in their hands. My wife got very scared, especially for our daughter. We had no option but to leave Gujarat. Biharis are being brutally beaten up there.”
Rinju Devi echoed her husband’s fears and said Gujarat had become a scary place now. “We plan to stay back in Bihar until the matter gets resolved,” she said. “We have returned in a hurry, most of our belongings are still back there in Gujarat, but we had no option.”
“Whatever we could take we took out. I am sure the landlord will throw our belongings away because even he got a threat from the people not to allow Biharis as tenants. The journey was really painful,” Rinju said, tears welling up.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar said he spoke to his Gujarat counterpart Vijay Rupani on Sunday about the hate attacks on migrant workers from Bihar and their exodus from the coastal state.
“I spoke to him (Vijay Rupani) yesterday (Sunday). The government there is alert and aware about the situation. I will request everybody that the person who has committed any wrong or crime should be punished and strict action should be taken against him. But such hatred should not be harboured against others,” Nitish said in Patna on Monday.
Shortly after the chief minister spoke around 1.30pm, the train from Gujarat chugged into Patna Junction, packed with migrant labourers and their families clutching onto their possessions, fear writ on their faces.
Indrajit Chauhan, 30, who hails from Patna’s Rajendra Nagar, was one of those beaten up in Sabarkantha. He was asked to vacate his house by his landlord, who had been warned by the local people against letting out his property to outsiders.
“The situation is really bad in Gujarat now and there is no protection from the police as well. The goons are roaming freely on the streets of Sabarkantha. They thrashed me after pulling me out of my house,” said Chauhan, a carpenter by profession.
Umesh Kumar, 35, who works in a private company in Kadi, also in Mehsana district of the western state, said he and his colleagues were beaten up on the premises of their workplace.
“I do not think I will be able to return to Gujarat after so much of harassment by the locals. What has happened is regrettable, but that does not mean they blame all Biharis for it,” said Umesh, who hails from Bhagalpur.
