Bijay Ram: Living on the edge

Bhavnathpur, Oct. 6: “Ram hai to bhagwan samajhta hai kya?” was the taunt hurled by the henchmen of Bhanu Pratap Sahi, the minister-in-waiting, before they evicted Dr Bijay Kumar Ram from his official quarters here. How could a Dalit live in a bungalow, they reasoned.

The doctor, a divisional medical officer employed by Steel Authority of India, replied by lodging a case against the MLA under the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989.

Nestling against lush green hills, Bhavnathpur, 270 km from the state capital, is the fiefdom of Bhanu Pratap Sahi, who won the last election on the Forward Bloc symbol. The case, along with other criminal cases and warrants of arrest pending against him, has put paid to Sahi’s ministerial ambition after the governor refused to administer to him the oath of office. But Sahi has not given up hope and UPA leaders see nothing wrong in inducting him into the ministry once he obtains “bail”.

But his attempts to intimidate the doctor, who belongs to a Scheduled Caste, has failed to cut much ice. “I would rather face bullets than withdraw the case,” said Ram, who hails from Garhwa. Sahi’s father Hemendra Pratap threatened over the phone, “Case ladte ladte barbaad ho jaaogey” (You will be ruined pursuing the cases). He has also received threatening calls from the MLA’s nephew Prashant Singh and others.

But he is proving to be a hard nut to crack. “They offered me Rs 15 lakh and promised to tender a public apology to the Dalit community,” the doctor said. But he is fighting for the self-esteem of the “entire Dalit community”, he added. “Had I been a kshatriya, they would not have dared to evict me from my official quarters and hurl abuses on me,” he said.

The indomitable doctor does fear for his life. His “B” type quarters is sandwiched between two similar quarters meant for SAIL executives but forcibly grabbed by the MLA and his men. “My family is under constant threat from these unauthorised occupants,” said the doctor, who draws inspiration from Ambedkar.

Not just the doctor but even the witnesses in the case, namely Sardar Paswan, Vijay Ratnakar, Sanjay Paswan and Birbal Sah have stood firm in the face of pressure on them to retract. They were engaged in whitewashing the house when Sahi’s men barged in and threw them out, they recalled.

Ironically, they were all members of the Naujawan Sangharsh Morcha floated by the MLA before getting disenchanted with the outfit.

The SAIL management, claims the doctor, buckled under political pressure and failed to file a complaint.

Thirty kilometres away, at Meral, The Telegraph met the block cooperative extension officer (BCEO), who, too, has filed a complaint against Sahi under the SC/ST Act. Bishwanath Ram incurred the wrath of the MLA, allegedly because he had denied contracts to the MLA’s supporters. The BCEO was consequently abducted, he complained, and forced to write that he had accepted Rs 10,000 as bribe.

“I did not receive any assistance from the administration. The deputy commissioner did not even speak to me after the incident,” recalled the BCEO, father of a son and four daughters. He, too, fears for his life. The DIG, he despondently added, is expected to submit a doctored report (DIG saheb poochenge kuch, aur likhenge kuch aur). Meral falls under the Garhwa constituency of RJD leader Girinath Singh, whose men, too, are “requesting” him to withdraw his complaint.

But spurred by his fellow villagers, this Ram, too, appeared determined to dig in his heels. “This government will not spare me, I know. But I will not withdraw the case,” Ram declared.