Speed Post News Network
Nawada : The size of Ramnavami procession in Nawada town, which passed off peacefully amidst water tight security through various roads of the town on April 7, 2017, was too huge. Many people put the numbers in several lakh. It was jointly led by Prem Kumar, Leader of opposition in Bihar assembly, Union minister and Nawada BJP MP Giriraj Singh, Hisua BJP MLA Anil Singh and former don Akhilesh Singh representing his legislator wife Aruna Devi, the Warisaliganj BJP MLA.
However, Giriraj Singh who sat on a dharna along with Prem Kumar and Anil Singh at the gates of Nawada Circuit House just before the start of the procession, slammed the Nawada DM for denying him accommodation or a room at the Circuit House. He charged DM Manoj Kumar with acting against the protocol and at the behest of the Mahagathbandhan government in the state. He urged the DM to declare him “tadi paar”a (persona non grata ).
DM Manoj Kumar, however, said that Giriraj’s accusations were baseless as a room was allotted to him but admitted delay in opening of the said room. He said that as per the protocol the District Welfare Officer went to receive the minister on his arrival. The DM said that he would take strict action after ascertaining the reasons for the delay in opening the allotted room. Even the ADG, Gupteshwar Pandey, who was present at the scene of the dharna, informed that the Nazarath deputy collector (NDC), who looks after the Circuit House, should be blamed for the delay in opening the room instead of the DM.
The procession looked like a sea of humanity with interesting highlights. While it was a strictly all-male (minors included) procession, women folk cheered them all the way from the roadside and roof tops. Around five dozen DJs, some with 36 cabinet-size speakers and loudspeakers, blared patriotic songs punctuating it with slogans of “Jai Shri Ram” and “doodh mangoge to kheer denge, Kashmir mangoge to chir denge”. Hundreds of swords were held aloft by the surcharged participants in the procession. Surprisingly, slogans like “Yogi zindabad” (UP CM) were also heard occasionally.
Gun-toting policemen and paramilitary personnel were posted in almost every street and alley of the minority community localities. Commissioner, Magadh division, Liyan Kunga, when asked whether he had ever seen such a huge procession in his career, said that as the DM of Hazaribagh in 1993-94, he had come across a similar procession. Elsewhere, several processions were also taken out in various blocks of the district.