The Times of India News Service

GAYA: In an extremely aggressive response to the Bara massacre udgment, in which four MCC activists were awarded capital punishment by the Gaya district and sessions judge, the banned Naxalite outfit has termed the judgment as a "mockery of justice" and expressed its determination to fight the system.

Reacting to the judgment, the MCC spokesperson of the Bihar-UP Border Zonal Committee, Ashok, accused all the organs of the state, including the judiciary, of nursing what he called a distinct "anti-poor bias". And this approach has reflected in the Bara judgment, he said.

Claiming that those awarded death punishment were in fact innocent, the MCC spokesperson said that whereas extra interest was taken in the Bara trials, no such interest was shown in respect of the Mein Barasimha massacre which preceded Bara and in which nearly a dozen persons belonging to the oppressed and deprived sections of the society were gunned down by the private army of the landlords. The Mein Barasimha case was allowed to linger as the victims belonged to the non-privileged section of the society and that's why all the accused of the Mein Barasimha massacre were roaming free. This "double standard" approach of the organs of the state will not be allowed to continue for long, asserted the MCC spokesperson.

Ashok also wondered why the trials were conducted under the provisions of TADA which has since been repealed on account of its draconian provisions. The selective use of TADA against the members of the oppressed sections of society gave a lie to the social justice claims of the Laloo-Rabri regime in Bihar. When it came to the oppression of the oppressed, Laloo Prasad Yadav, the self-appointed champion of the downtrodden, was no different from the NDA rulers in Delhi, said the MCC leader. The rule of law is a misnomer, he added.

The MCC spokesperson also wanted to know why the state government was not taking the same interest in bringing the culprits of Laxmanpur Bathe, Shankarbigha and Miapur massacres to book as it did in the case of Bara. "The haves were more equal than the have nots in the state government's scheme of things," he added.

According to Ashok, the MCC will soon chalk out an effective strategy to combat the judgment fallout and expose the designs of the establishment people. However, he refused to divulge the nature and direction of the MCC strategy. He also reminded that the Bara massacre was retaliatory in nature as it was committed to avenge the mindless killing of Dalits by the landlords.