The political pilgrimage to Murumatu Pandu has thinned out. Not many even talk about it. The Murumatu episode in fact pushed the issue of drought in Palamu on the back seat for a week or so, said social analysts.
Sources said that the Palamu administration failed to contain the 'blast of the misinformation about the episode.' It's public relation office could not issue the right kind of information for the consumption of the press and the public in general in time.
It was a no holds barred flashing of the episode of the village Murumatu. The result was near devastating.
A line was drawn between the minority community and the dalits. Administration was flayed for paroxysm to act in time said sources. The local Pandu civil administration looked crippled for most of the days following the eruptions on August 29.
Pandu police arrested 3 accused on the day the FIR was lodged and saved to some extent the avalanche of the discriminatory news stories about the episode of the forced eviction of the maha dalits by the Muslims who beat them up and razed their huts.
Fiction ran over the fact. It was said the maha dalits who were evicted were living there for 4 generations and one generation is of 25 years. The administration found their dwelling span of only 4 years.
Another fiction that was made out was that the maha dalits were stuffed into the pickup vans and dispatched to the jungles of Loto. Here a narrative was built up that their children got lost in the maze of the Loto jungles. No child went any missing said the administration.
The administration found that no maha dalit was any stuffed into the pickup vans. They rode it bag and baggage and none was any crying in the street from Murumatu to Loto jungles. It was a happy push off which later turned all sour between the dalits and the minority community.
PalamuDC A Dodde told these people were amicably sent off by the minority community. The minority community arranged cash and vans for them like cash for tarpaulin and asbestos sheets and some cash on hands.
Another narrative : there was an 'attack' on the dalits by the minority community. But a cautious silence on the weapons used for the attack. The administration did not find any trace of use of spear, sword, axe, tangi to drive them out. The dalits too did not make any reference to these traditional blunt weapons in public or in the complaint before the visitors.
The land which was freed of the illegal occupation of the maha dalits was definitely levelled with JCB machine (bull dozer) and that definitely brought down the huts of the maha dalits, an act of crime committed which the minority community will never be absolved of it. The minority community curses itself for such a tragic folly of them said sources.
SDO sadar Rajesh Kumar Sah and SDPO Surjit Kumar were the officers who first of all took the entire brunt of the episode. The SDO sadar had told this correspondent that there was the use of the bull dozer (read JCB) to level the land and also to bring down the huts by the minority community. SDPO Surjit Kumar said the police swung into action fast and swift.
Palamu administration offered succour to the maha dalits at a neck break speed. They were housed in an old abandoned police station building at Pandu with 100 kgs of rice, sarees for women, lungis for men and lots of drinking water. Now decks have been cleared for 25,000 rupees each for 10 ousted maha dalit families under the benefits that come under the SC - ST prevention of the atrocities act.
No political pilgrims to Murumatu ever demanded any high level inquiry, not even the BJP which only flayed the district administration for what it alleged was the appeasement of the minority community which is BJP's trusted armoury attack on the administration.
Sources said Murumatu has joined the list of flash points locations now where administration will have to make more efforts in mass festivals like Durga Puja and Ramnavmi and Muharram procession.