Rashtriya Nishad Sangh is up in arms over the the Samajwadi Party’s decision of fielding Phoolan slayer Pankaj Singh alias Sher Singh Rana’s nephew from the Thana Bhawan Assembly seat of Shamli for the coming Assembly polls.
Rana has been given the ticket replacing Kiranpal Kashyap. His uncle Pankaj Singh has been convicted for the murder of the former bandit queen and SP MP Phoolan Devi and is presently lodged in Tihar jail, Delhi.
Secretary of Rashtriya Nishad Sangh Chaudhary lautanram Nishad said that a ticket to a kin of Phoolan Devi’s killer was an insult to the entire community which comprises about 4.5 per cent of the State’s population and is a part of the Most Backward Castes (MBC).
The Nishad leader said that the community has been supporting the Samajwadi Party since it withdrew cases against Phoolan Devi in 1994 and got her elected to the lok Sabha on a party ticket in 1996.
In 1994, the then Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav withdrew all cases against Phoolan and she was released from jail after 11 years without trial. later, she was fielded as the SP candidate from Bhadohi lok Sabha seat which she won. Phoolan Devi emerged as an icon for the Nishad community (mallah or boatmen). However on Juy 25, 2001, Phoolan Devi was gunned down in front of her official residence in Delhi by Rana and his accomplice.
“After Phoolan was killed in 2001, the SP started taking the Nishad community for granted. Phoolan’s mother and sister are living in penury and benefits they were getting under various schemes have been stopped,’’ said Nishad.
“What is more, on August 1, the Rashtriya Nishad Sangh was prevented by the administration from installing Phoolan’s statue at Bagha Gadha village near Nausar Chauraha in Gorakhpur. The official take was not prior permission was taken,”he said.
Irked by this, the Nishad Sangh has declared to install statues of Phoolan Devi in 156 Assembly seats with sizeable Nishad population.
The Nishad Sangh will be meeting in lucknow with other organizations on October 18 to draft a strategy to defeat the Samajwadi Party in the upcoming Assembly polls. Nishad said that the SP no longer catered to the interests of the weak and downtrodden sections and was not concerned about welfare of the Nishad community.