Lalu Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal, in an attempt to play their divisive agenda and create rifts among the masses in moments of crisis, has tried to paint the strike of doctors in Bengal and the encephalitis deaths of children in Bihar in casteist colours.
The RJD has claimed in a tweet that the Bengal doctors strike was unnecessarily highlighted by the media because the doctors who were attacked were from upper castes. It has also downplayed the rampant law and order issues and security concerns for doctors as a ‘mere beating of one or two doctors’. The party has also claimed that media and the system are not highlighting the encephalitis deaths in Bihar because the child victims are from poor backward castes.
देश में एक-दो सवर्ण डॉक्टरों की महज पिटाई के बाद तो देश भर के डॉक्टरों ने देश की सरकारों और जनता को औकात दिखा दिया। मीडिया ने हाय-तौबा मचा दी लेकिन 200 दलित-पिछड़े ग़रीब बच्चों के मारे जाने के बाद अधिकांश सन्नाटा है क्योंकि बाक़ी सब सही सलामत है। अन्यथा ये लोग कोहराम मचा देते।
— Rashtriya Janata Dal (@RJDforIndia) June 17, 2019
In certain sections of media and social media, there were already attempts to brand the Bengal doctors’ strike as a ‘Savarna conspiracy’. RJD seems to be taking the exact same lines. The attempt to downplay the severity of the incident at NRS hospital where truckloads of attackers swarmed the hospital, launching vicious attacks on doctors on duty and the police negligence to bring the perpetrators to justice is also evident in the tweet.
Encephalitis has claimed over a hundred lives of children in Bihar. At the wake of a severe health crisis, RJD’s stand of bringing out the caste angle reeks of cheap political opportunism. Interestingly, when the houses of dozens of poor Dalits were torched in RJD leader Tejaswi Yadav’s own constituency, RJD had maintained a conspicuous silence.
Last year, an RJD leader and his associates had been found guilty of beating up a woman and parading her naked in Bihar’s Bihiya. Of the 15 people arrested, 6 were local RJD men. However, when the incident was first highlighted, Tejaswi Yadav was quick to blame JDU chief Nitish Kumar for it.
It is also notable here that the Yadav family had recently faced an electoral wipeout in Lok Sabha elections. The party that had once ruled Bihar and had significant clout in national level politics, could not manage to win even a single seat. Lalu Yadav’s daughter Misa Bharti was reportedly quick to take out her frustration on voters as she proceeded to cancel the projects approved under her MPLAD fund.
