Prime Minister, you can run from a debate in Parliament on the Manipur bloodshed but you can't hide from the people.
An explosion of rage has risen above the clutter of commentaries and discourses swirling around the reluctance of Narendra Modi so far to speak in Parliament on the endless conflict in Manipur.
Shorn of the restraint imposed by the updated list of unparliamentary words, the unvarnished rebuke has been delivered by a retired nurse from a street in Ranchi last week.
Her right arm slicing the air in the universal symbol of defiance, Jyoti Bhengra, 62, unloaded her outrage while speaking to a reporter of a local TV channel, Ranchi Live, after a protest against the atrocity on two women in Manipur whose videotaped trauma prompted Modi to break his silence briefly.
"There is no Modi.... Do mahina se koyi Modi dekha? Bharat mein Modi rahta hai kya? Woh videsh ka Modi hai, Bharat ka nahin," thus began a deafening denouncement that, by the time its flames were somewhat doused, had skewered the President of India and several ministers in the Union ministry for their failure or delay in responding to the Manipur conflagration.
It is unlikely that most of the phrases chosen by Bhengra would ever be allowed to echo either in the august Houses of Parliament or in polite and perfumed environs. Nor are they likely to win endorsement in the larger society in ordinary times.
But the manner in which Bhengra spoke leaves little doubt that the explosive rage was bursting forth from her heart. Unrehearsed and unchoreographed, she was sending a message to those — not just to Modi but to the entire system — who have been taking her for granted: the polity cannot afford to be nice and polite when limits are crossed.
Bhengra's declamation left such an imprint that historian and author Ramachandra Guha felt it apt to share a clip (recorded by a local TV reporter) on his Twitter handle. "Do see the short video linked in this tweet. It is a powerful, and utterly justified, indictment of the Prime Minister, the President and female and tribal Ministers of the ruling regime," Guha posted on Sunday, a day after the Ranchi protest.
Earlier this week, Bhengra, who is associated with the Rashtriya Moolnivasi Mahila Sangh (the women's wing of the All India Backward and Minority Community Employees Federation — BAMCEF), told The Telegraph what made her speak out over the weekend.
“When I saw the video (of two tribal women being paraded naked and sexually assaulted) on Thursday night, I was very disturbed. I could not sleep the entire night and could not take my meals even on Friday,” Bhengra said.
There was a traumatic personal element too. “I too have daughters. My youngest daughter died in a road accident while returning from Jamshedpur in July 2022while my eldest daughter works in a private company. I thought what would happen if this barbarism had taken place with my daughters. My youngest daughter was the same age as one of the women shown in the video,” Bhengra said.
The target of her anger was not elected figures alone. “I was angry at the mainstream media also for not going to the spot and showing the truth instead of praising the Prime Minister who was visiting foreign countries. When the reporter asked me questions, I could not control myself,” Bhengra said.
Bhengra, who is also the state president of the 5th Schedule Area Action Plan (the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution deals with the administration and control of the scheduled areas and the Scheduled Tribes in tribal-dominated states, except some states in the Northeast), said she was not afraid of being trolled.
“I am not afraid of the troll army of the BJP. I am not afraid of even dying but I will stand by every sentence I said in the video till my last breath,” she said.
Bhengra, who lives in Ranchi, has been travelling extensively in all 13 districts of Jharkhand, making the tribal people aware of the importance of gram sabhas and the need to prevent the “loot” of tribal “jal, jungle and jameen”.
“I worked as a general nurse, midwifery, at the Tata Steel-owned hospital in Jamshedpur for over 18 years and thereafter worked as a general nurse with the NGO, the Family Planning Association of India, at Bokaro. After my retirement, I decided to form the Fifth Schedule Area Action Plan during the Covid pandemic,” she said.
