On Wednesday (Jaunary 18, 2012), Maulana Asrarul Haque, Member of Parliament from Kishanganj called a meeting of political leaders at the Circuit House to discuss the case slapped in response to October 12 Dharna and its possible remedies. After a long discussion the MPs and MLAs decided to meet Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar and request him for withdrawing the case. No need to explain the reason again and again, of course, you all know the ‘Historic October 12 Dharna for AMU Kishanganj’.
October 12, 2011 was a historic day for the district of Kishanganj, Purnia Division, Seemanchal and whole Bihar. It was the ‘Maha Dharna’ organized under the leadership of Kishanganj MP Maulana Asrarul Haque Qasmi under the banner of Kishanganj Education Movement for the establishment of AMU Centre. Actively participated by the local MLAs Dr. Jawaid (MLA Kishanganj), Akhtarul Imaan (MLA Kochadhaman), Tousif Alam (MLA Bahadurganj), Ali Imran Ramz aka Victor (MLA Chakulia – Uttar Dinajpur, West Bengal), Gholam Rabbani (MLA Goalpokhar – Uttar Dinajpur, West Bengal), Congress MP Deepa Das Munshi, NCP leader Tarique Anwar, TMC leader Karim Choudhary, the Dharna had witnessed the congregation of about 3,00,000 people before the District Collectorate in Kishanganj.
The cause of conducting the Maha Dharna was the unprecedented delay made by the Bihar Government in providing land to AMU administration free of cost for establishing the massive campus in the Kishanganj district of Bihar. Cause was noble and development pro and related to future of millions of residents of Bihar including some pockets of neighbouring West Bengal and Jharkhand states. However, the delay in the issue literally frustrated the locals of Bihar and that in turn caused the formation of a platform Kishanganj Education Movement which staged the dharna on October 12, 2011. As per the common consensus the Kolkata / Delhi – Guwahati rail route and National Highway (NH) No 31 was blocked for around 14 hours.
The Dharna was a wake-up call for Bihar Government and it led to an enmity between the government and Kishanganj Education Movement. Although the Dharna was called off in the night of October 12, but the next day Bihar Government filed cases against three MPs, around half a dozen MLAs, leader of opposition in Bihar Assembly and 33 others. On the guidelines of District Administration, Saroj Kumar Bharati – the District Fishery Officer has filed the case in Kishanganj Police Station under the case no 415/2011. Later on the police had submitted the complain-letter to District Court, along with the Charge Sheet. The charges implemented under the case led the alleged persons to jail.
Now coming back to the issue, the decision of alleged MPs and MLAs to meet the Bihar CM in the light and betterment is a good step. The agreement signing between the DM Kishanganj and AMU administration is just the first stair for the proposed Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) Study Centre in Kishanganj. If we wish to see the campus in reality, we have to do little adjustments with the ruling government whether it be Nitish led NDA government or any other government in due course of time. It will take at least 10 to 15 years to see the full-fledged campus in Kishanganj and such decisions like the one taken by the MPs and MLAs is going to help the proposed Centre in a big way. Hope the Bihar Government will accept the request of alleged people in the case no 415/2011 for blocking the rail and road routes on October 12, 2011. And most importantly, we would like to see the inclusive approach and same zeal of the political leaders and common people in the coming time as well for other issues keeping aside the political boundaries.
