If Marx were to return from his grave he may not be as dismayed ection of his legacy in the USSR, as would he be ashamed at the distortion creep into the ideology in caste ridden at the rejpolitics of Bihar. The single caste stranglehold over the Communist parties in the state makes one feel that poor Marx will have to be content with being a mere disciple of Manu in this backward province of India.

Foremost among the causes for rise of militant neo left movement in Bihar is the domination of the upper caste, affluent and landed class people over the two traditional ‘Communist parties the CPI and the CPM. ‘And what is worth mentioning is that most of the leaders of these upper castes who have dominated the Communist parties are bhumihars. The very name of the caste suggests landed, affluent class. The domination of Bhumihars over the two Communist groups has not only led to the creation of new left organisations but also increased the intraparty squabbles. The stranglehold of the community on the party has blunted the Communists’ ideological edge as well as reduced their” champion of have not’s” image to mere facade.

Backward classes

Leaders and activists belonging to the other backward castes especially, Yadav’s and Koeris resent the domination of bhumibars. Though the CPI and the CPM improved their performance in the recent parliamentary and assembly elections, this does not necessarily mean that they gained their lost ground, the success owed much to the consolidation of Opposition votes. The Muslim voters too preferred them over the BJP in constituencies where the Janata Dal did not put up its nominees.

A short run down of the two organisations would reveal that the bhumihars had ‘occupied almost all the important posts whether it is in the main party organisation or in their affiliated trade unions, women cells or youth or student bodies. Their domination over the parties extends to within their legislative segments viz assembly and the council, Mr Chutran and Sharma, Rajya Sabha leader of the CPI; Mr Ramaviar Sharma, state secretary of the CPI; Mr Ramendra Kumar, leader of the party in Bihar assembly; Mr Parmanand Singh Madan, leader of the party in legislative council; Mr Jitendra Kumar, state general secretary, AISF; Mr Prem Prakash Sharma, state general secretary of All India Youth Federation; Mr Triveni Sharma Sudhakar, president, Kisan Sabha (of CPI); Mr Dhanesh Prasad Sinha MLC, general secretary; Indo Soviet Cultural Society; Mr Shatrughan Prasad Sinha, MLC, general secretary of the Secondary School Teachers’ Association; Shatrughan Prasad Singh; general secretary, Non-Gazetted Employees Federation; Chandra Ketu Sharma, slate secretariat member and incharge of the party headquarters, all belong to the bhumihars community.

This speaks of the hold of the caste factor on the party. Even at the district level the party betrays the similar hold,

Same in CPM

 The condition within the CPM is more or less the same. The state secretary of the party and Leader in the legislative Council, Mr Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthy is a bhumihar. So are Mr Vijay Kanth Thakur, Mr Ramasahray Singh and Mr Krishan Kant Singh, the three members of the state secretariat of the party where the total

Membership is nine, Mrs Ram Pukari Devi, the president of CPM women’s cell is also a bhumihar, Mr Ramasahray Singh is also the assembly leader of the party whereas Mr Krishna Kant Singh is the president of the Kisan Sabha of the CPM.

Mr Lallan Choudhury, DIYF general secretary; Mr Yoginder Singh, general secretary of the Non Gazetted Employees Federation; Mr Sarvodaya Sharma, incharge of Student youth Sub Committee are also bhumihars. Some of the leaders like Mr Vidyarthi, Mr Krishna Kant Singh, etc. hold ‘more than one post. Though leaders from other communities to find representation, the bhumihars take care to see that the main machinery docs not slip out of the community control. In order to ensure this, the key posts are kept within the community. For ‘example, Mr S.S Srivastava, a state secretary, CITU, fought twice for the legislative council membership but lost due to the lack of support from predominantly bhumihar leadership. The bhumihars in the CPI also did not support these two non bhumihar CPM nominees. Conversely the bhumihar dominated CPM backed the candidature of Mr Vidyarthi who now heads the CPM in the council. Only a discerning eye can make out the invisible nexus that has progressed between the bhumihars and Communism.

Covert agreements

 The CPM leaders have often entered into covert agreements with candidates of other parties to facilitate the victory of the bhumihar candidates by consolidation of the bhumihar votes

‘One such instance which provoked enough disgust in party relates to the recent assembly elections when the party withdrew its nominee from Paligun) to ensure the victory of Mr Ram Lakhan Singh prevailed upon the party to put up a weak candidate elsewhere against the CPM’s bhumihar candidate

Even the student Federation of India (SFI) is witnessing an internal tussle, both the president and secretary, Mr Ram Kumar Yadav and Mr Dinesh Kumar, respectively, are Yadavs. They were elected recently. The bhumihar lobby wanted Mr Anjani Kumar, a bhumihar as president of the SFI. The outgoing vice presidents, Mr Shiv Shankar Prasad and Mr Vinod Kumar had to bow out of their office because they were both nonbhumihars and were critical of the prob humihar  bias in the federation,

Not accidental By any stretch of imagination, the dominance of bhumihars on these two Communist parties is not accidental, It was deliberate strategy of the bhumihar castelords to infiltrate into these parties as they perceived threat to their land and property interest only from the communist movement. ““Join them if you cannot fight them”, was the main motivation, Not only this, now affluent individuals from the caste are trying to infiltrate into some of the Naxalite ‘movements in order to take the sting out of their zeal against social and economic injustice.

So intense are the caste sentiments that the Non Gazetted Employees Federation split into two over the caste issue recently, ‘The more dominated one led by Mr Yogeshawar Gope broke with the Yogender Singh group of the federation. Mr Gope is a Yadav while Mr Yogender is a bhumihar. Mr Gope along with his supporters joined the Indian People’s Front. Feature and News Alliance,

Article extracted from this publication >> October 12, 1990