Bikramganj (Rohtas), June 20: An unassuming house belonging to Bikramganj civil court advocate Ramnaresh Singh Yadav at Sri Krishna Nagar, 150 km from Patna, suddenly became an important address for police and the media yesterday, as the son of top Naxalite leader Vinay Kumar Arya married Singh’s daughter Pushpa.
With the bridegroom in question being the son of central committee military wing member of the outlawed CPI (Maoist), Vijay Kumar Arya, there were pointed posers that were thrown at the bride’s father, the groom and the bride.
Pushpa Singh, a bachelor degree-holder in electro-homeopathy from Lucknow University deftly evaded them. There were a lot more loaded questions for groom Prem Pankaj, an automobile engineer at Delhi, to justify his father’s ideology.
Police stepped into the venue several times, in uniform or in plain clothes. But the force maintained a “decent” behaviour with the advocate’s family and with the 250-strong wedding party members who arrived from Arya’s Karma village at Gaya.
Before this, the police had unsuccessfully raided Arya’s Gaya house on Monday searching for him, even though the family had “severed” ties with him.
However, yesterday’s wedding was a little different for another reason.
The wedding party that arrived at Yadav’s doorstep at 11.30pm was treated to pure vegetarian food, to reinforce Janvaadi ideology, that sheds heavy marriage expenses. At midnight, bridegroom Pankaj, dressed in dark coat and pant, arrived at the pandal. Before the bride joined him on the dais for the ritual-free marriage, Pankaj announced to the media: “I wanted my wedding to be performed according to Janvaadi tradition, dating back to early 1970s. I am opposed to Brahminical rituals and wanted a dowry-free marriage,” said Pankaj showing no qualms about being son of a wanted Maoist leader.
Pankaj said that though he supported the “armed” movement led by his father, he found the path “impractical”. Instead, he would help change the society by asking his friends and family to “oppose dowry and rituals”.
Bride Pushpa, dressed in a red sari, echoed his views. “I wanted to marry a good man and I have, irrespective of what his father’s ideology may be. I am totally opposed to repressive Brahminism that separates society on caste lines,” said Pushpa, at one point irked by media’s constant questions.
The rest of the marriage was equally unique. At the pandal, Arjak Samaj men sang Janvaadi songs ridiculing rituals. “Na motor car laylu, doli na kahar laylu (neither a motorcar has arrived, no palanquin either)” they sand stating that they needed no cars and that a palanquin was too loathsome as four people are forced to carry one individual.
Songs over, groom and bride exchanged garlands. Pushpa’s father and a relative of the groom read the oath papers. The bridegroom and the bride read separate oath papers wherein they accepted each other and promised to treat each other equally and with dignity.
“I have visited Karma only for an hour since my marriage two years ago. I respect our relation but I want a clear-cut distance from Arya and his ideology,” said his son-in-law, who preferred to remain anonymous.
But, the bride’s father seemed little worried. “I deliberately chose to marry my daughter to Arya’s son because a Maoist family would not ask for a single penny. As for the police watch, I know the laws to tackle them,” said the advocate smiling disarmingly.
