PATNA, India, 16 January 2006 — In an effort to win over Muslims in Bihar, the new state government led by Nitish Kumar yesterday announced that it would come out with a white paper on the Bhagalpur riots in a fortnight. The white paper will give details of compensation paid to victims, their rehabilitation and trial of cases.
The government move is likely to further marginalize Nitish’s chief political rival, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad. A white paper on the 1989 riots is likely to raise more questions than find answers.
A question that is frequently asked is why the state government halted in 2001 the process of identification of those victims who were denied compensation. When Rabri Devi, the wife of Lalu, headed the previous Bihar government, the Home Department sent a letter to Bhagalpur district authorities asking them to stop making a list of the victims for compensation who had been left out.
After this, the report of a government compensation committee was dumped. That committee was constituted in 1999 by then Bhagalpur Commissioner M Ashiq Ibrahimi. In its report, the committee had incorporated a list of 35 victims of the riots still awaiting compensation.
Ibrahimi is currently secretary to the Minorities Welfare Department.
The report is believed to be missing from the office of the Bhagalpur district magistrate. But government sources said copies of the report were also submitted to the chief district administrator of Banka and the special public prosecutor, Qamrur Rahman.
So even if officials were to misplace the report, it is safe in the custody of Rahman, the sources pointed out.
