This is the report of the of a fact finding team of academicians and journalists appointed by the PUDR, Delhi. The appointment of the team followed reports in the press about police firings and arrests of people due to alleged extremist violence. The committee visited the affected areas in the first week of December and interviewed a cross-section of society, including agricultural labourers, landlords, politicians of various political parties both at the local and state levels, journalists, academicians, officials of the State Government and its police at different levels, and activists of the Kisan Sabha — the organisation leading the poor. The affected Blocks are Masaurhi, Bikram, Pali, Naubat-pur, Dhanrua, Punpun, and Fatua in Patna district.The view of the State Government is that the entire unrest is due to the activities of ‘extremists’ and ‘Naxalites’. They are alleged to be conducting armed campaigns and to have set up ‘parallel governments1. This view was also shared by the local media. Yet the Minister of State for Home in the Union Cabinet, Yogendra Makwana, told the Lok Sabha on December 9, 1981: “According to the State Government, reports of a parallel government in these areas are totally baseless”.
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1981-12- Agrarian Unrest in Patna
