Controversy Over Statue of OBC Martyr Nirmal

-SANJAY KUMAR

The controversy over the removal of the statue of Nirmal Singh – an OBC leader who actively participated in the struggle for social change aimed at securing social equality for the backward classes – on the premises of the Darbhanga Medical College hospital has hotted up the political scene. The socially conscious people of Bihar are unitedly opposing the decision and they have been joined by the students of the medical college. 

The government says that the installation of Nirmal Singh’s statue, who fought for social equality, was illegal while the students of the college justify it. After the government ordered the district administration to get the statue dismantled within three days, as a mark of protest, the third-year MBBS students decided to boycott their exams and began an indefinite dharna. The students argued that as Nirmal Singh was a student of their college and was killed at the hands of the police while waging the battle for social change, there was nothing wrong in installing his statue on the college premises.

Speaking in the Vidhan Parishad, the Bihar health minister Ashiwini Chaube had recently remarked that as Nirmal Singh was a murder accused, his statue cannot be installed on the premises of any government building. Opposing the minister’s statement, the RJD had demanded the removal of other statues too. CPI (ML) had also criticised the statement and demanded that the minister should withdraw it. Upendra Kushwaha, the president of the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party, while opposing the decision to dismantle the statue of revolutionary youth leader and martyr Nirmal, had charged the government with trying to vitiate the atmosphere for no reason. On the orders of the government, the college administration had got an FIR registered against Dr Ajit Kumar Chaudhary, Dr ANP Yadav and four dozen other unnamed persons.

Nirmal Singh was a medical student but had given up studies two years after his admission and had jumped into the social movement. He was killed on 29 November 1975 at Babubaandh in Bhojpur district, along with the general secretary of CPI (ML) Jauhar Dutt.

Whatever may be the reason for the government’s insistence at removing the statue, it is clear that for the Dalits and OBCs this has become an emotional issue as they feel that he had fought for them.

                                                    (Published in  Forward Press,  May, 2013 Issue)