THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK
Daltonganj, July 4: The conspicuous absence of the president of the Sri Mahavir Nav Yuvak Dal Jugal Kishore, commonly known as Ramnavmi committee and his important office bearers from the Thursday Central Peace Committee (CPC) meeting on the issue of Muharram held in the Pdt Deen Dayal Upadhyay Smriti Bhavan in Daltonganj was talked about more than the outcome of the meeting.
The Sri Mahavir Nav Yuvak Dal’s one member was there in the meeting, but everyone wanted to know then as to why Jugal Kishore and his entire brigade were not there. It was undoubtedly a case of tokenism by the Ramnavmi committee.
A feeble defence was presented that members of the Ramnavmi committee had gone to Nitin Gadkari’s programme in the Garhwa district.
Sources said, “It’s not a fissure in social and communal harmony, but at the same time the fabric of harmony is no smooth but a coarse one”.
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Voices Heard Freely, But Representation Still Lacking
Again, there came a moment in the meeting when a resident of Panki told right before the DC Sameera S and SP Reeshma Ramesan as to how youths of a particular faith have beaten up a journalist who hails from the powerful upper caste. Here, SP Reeshma Ramesan intervened, saying FIR has been lodged and the law is taking its own course.
Further, a voice was heard in the said meeting as to how in the past, leaves and branches of the Neem tree of a Dev Asthal were trimmed or cut off for the passage of the Muharram procession.
The participants in the Central Peace Committee meeting were free to give their version. No one was cut short. No one was denied. Some spoke more for a habit of their own. Some spoke to vent their apprehension.
The meeting was conducted by the Additional Collector Kundan Kumar. He spoke firmly and with clarity. At the end of the ‘speak the participants first’ Kundan Kumar summarised the issues raised in the meeting, paving the way for the DC Sameera S and SP Reeshma Ramesan to give their authoritative version on almost each and every issue raised in the meeting.
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Public Sentiment Questions Relevance of Peace Committees
The peace committee meeting has become a ritual. Again, it doesn’t represent the vox populi. Members of the Sikh, Jain, Christian communities remain invisible to this meeting when their presence and voice matter most.
The Jharkhand Story correspondent conducted a survey as to whether the peace committee meeting is any guarantor of peace and harmony.
80 percent of the public whom this correspondent met and spoke with were of the opinion that it’s time to disband peace committee meeting and in place of it civil and police officials including the rich and the poor should ‘walk down to sensitive and vulnerable areas to have a feel of the people’s pulse there’.
Peace committee meeting and flag march have lost their relevance. It’s seen as a routine thing. However, everyone in the meeting agreed to give peace and harmony a big hand.
