SUMAN K SHRIVASTAVA
Ranchi, Dec. 31: When we look back on events in 2022 years later which shaped up the future of Jharkhand, we will remember how a lawyer, trapped for bribery’ could change the course of action in the State where the mineral wealth proved a curse for tribals but a boon for the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats.
Beginning on a high note, lawyer Rajiv Kumar brought into the public domain sordid stories of corruption by mighty politicians, bureaucrats and power brokers and moved the Jharkhand High Court for paving ways for a probe into various cases of corruption which hollowed out the State.
The high court took active interest in these cases. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) also unravelled the corrupt practices of the then Mining Secretary Pooja Singhal and unearthed a huge amount of illegally earned property.
Though everybody knew and whispered how some politicians, bureaucrats and power brokers had put the governance at jeopardy with impunity, the intervention by the court as well as the ED made them believe that the corrupt ones would finally be brought to justice and Pooja’s arrest could well have been a beginning of pruning the rotten parts of the steel frame.
But as the hearing was in full gear, Rajiv Kumar walked into a trap laid by Amit Agrawal, considered close to Chief Minister Hemant Soren and was arrested with a hefty cash of Rs 50 lakh. And everything turned topsy-turvy.
It helped the legal team, hired by the Jharkhand government as well the persons close to Hemant Soren discredit the whole case as a vendetta orchestrated by the Opposition BJP government at the centre and its ‘caged parrots’.
Though the Supreme Court rejected the PIL citing various legal reasons, this bribery must have weighed heavily on the judges’ mind to see through the ‘hidden agenda’ behind filing the PIL even if the ED said that it had adequate evidence to nail the persons named in the PIL.
So, the court rejected the PIL but did not stop the ED from carrying on the investigation on its own. However, the ED had its own limitations and has not been able to gather strong evidence of money laundering in absence of a strong FIR. In fact, the ED is now mainly busy in protecting the predicate FIRs, lodged by private persons, on which it has built up its case of money laundering of Rs 1000 crore through illegal mining by CM’s representative Pankaj Mishra, Amit Agrawal, Prem Prakash and their associates.
The state government has even challenged the ED’s jurisdiction after it summoned DSP Pramod Mishra in the toll plaza scam case. The high court bench, which had opened its mind over the investigation in this case carried by the State police, has changed.
Had the Supreme Court cleared a CBI probe in the main case pursued by Rajiv Kumar, the situation would have been different.
According to a grapevine, the corrupt politicians, power brokers and bureaucrats were a bit scared after the ED action against Pooja Singhal in Jharkhand. But the developments following Rajiv Kumar’s arrest on July 31, have changed the scenario and created an impression that they are immune to all the actions by the court as well as the central agencies.
It is now feared that they will go on creating wealth with more vigour in the ensuing year. It is possible one or two weak politicians or bureaucrats might face the trouble but the powerful ones will remain immune to the caged parrots’ action.
Also, in absence of a strong predicate FIR and orders of the Supreme Court, the ED felt handicapped to make out a strong case of money laundering against powerful politicians and bureaucrats. It appeared that the ED summoned Chief Minister Hemant Soren without having piercing questions and strong evidence against him, making him bolder thereafter challenging the ED to answer its questions with eye in eye.
But then, who emerged hero ducking all the googlies thrown by the Opposition BJP and legal challenges? The obvious answer is Chief Minister Hemant Soren.
Political watchers believe that half-hearted investigation by the central agencies, half-baked legal cases coupled with a divided BJP in the State helped Hemant Soren swim to safety from the difficult situation and dare the mighty central government.
Faced with a political crisis and serious corruption charges, Hemant Soren has definitely thrown the ball in BJP’s court, keeping his flock intact.
Soren projects himself as a victim for doing good for Adivasis and the underprivileged. He also plays the Adivasi card, saying the ‘feudal’ BJP is after him since he happened to be an Adivasi.
“He is battle ready. He is in election mode, knowing well that the party will have to face the electorates in case he is ousted out of power due to corruption charges or disqualified by the Governor in the office of profit case,” pointed out a political observer.
The BJP, which began a campaign to discredit Hemant Soren as a corrupt dynast, has got trapped in its own game plan with no answer to his decisions, which were taken by Soren in panic of getting dislodged from power.
Soren has hit the ground to celebrate the ‘illusory’ new domicile policy, based on land records (Khatiyan) of 1932, reserving all grade III and IV jobs for ‘Khatiyanis’ and 27 per cent reservation for OBC.
He has rushed to fulfill most of his election promises like old pension scheme, bonanza for para teacher and anganwadi workers, Sarva jan pension yojna among others even if the state coffer was not ready to bear such expenses. He has emerged a different man exuding confidence.
As the suspense over his future in the Assembly continued, Soren outmanoeuvred the Opposition to win the trust vote (the BJP boycotted it), staving off any uncertainty about his government’s fate, at least for the time being as Governor Ramesh Bais’ order on his possible disqualification is still pending.
Also, Hemant Soren has so far ducked all the legal actions against him though the investigating agencies like the CBI and ED are understood to have gathered adequate proof of corruption against him and his family members.
Now, to the bewilderment of many, the BJP has gone on defensive on all these issues fearing backlash if they tell the tribals and OBCs that Hemant Soren was playing with their sentiments as executing these policies is next to impossible. The BJP is not even going to tell people in simple terms that two policies will never be able to be implemented given the constitutional position.
The party is virtually looking for answers to counter Hemant Soren’s 1932 domicile policy or the OBC reservation, though both the policies are not constitutionally valid. It has miserably failed to set a strong narrative against the Hemant Soren government, though the latter has thrown up many issues in these years.
The reason being that the BJP is a divided house in Jharkhand. Babulal Marandi, a grassroot leader, whom the BJP central leadership believed will strongly counter Hemant Soren, has not shown much result. According to sources, he is facing opposition from former Chief Minister Raghubar Das, who is mainly blamed for the BJP’s defeat in 2019. BJP state president Deepak Prakash, an old friend of Marandi, has also not been successful in galvanising the party to be successful in the four byelections held after 2019. On the other hand, Arjun Munda has established himself in Delhi and does not show much interest in state politics, thus depriving BJP the much needed cementing force.
“We could not succeed politically to dislodge the Hemant Soren government as there was a divided opinion on the government formation by wooing MLAs from other parties. While Marandi wanted to form the government, Raghubar Das did not like the idea,” pointed out a BJP leader.
