SUMAN K SHRIVASTAVA
Ranchi, Dec. 10: While Chief Minister Hemant Soren, faced with serious corruption charges, 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 reservation for OBC, silence has engulfed the BJP camp with senior party leaders busy on Twitter in a bid to discredit Soren.
Outsmarting the BJP, Soren has embarked on a statewide journey which he consciously named ‘Khatiyani Johar Yatra’ showcasing his government’s achievements and dismissing all the charges of corruption against him and his cronies as a mere conspiracy of the ‘feudal’ BJP government to dislodge him.
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.
First, he launched the public outreach programme for doorstep delivery of select welfare schemes (Aapki Yojana Aapki Sarkar Aapke Dwar) campaign last month. Now, during his Khatiyani Johar yatra, he not only addresses public rallies but also reviews development-related works along with the top bureaucrats and police officers at the district level and takes stock of the actual progress by visiting various districts in person along with surprise visits to any department of the district.
The idea is to connect with the people in their district and also take feedback on the welfare schemes and ‘historic’ decisions taken by the government. The first phase covers six districts namely Garhwa, Palamu, Gumla, Lohardaga, Godda and Deoghar by December 16.
“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 watcher.
Fearing that he will be disqualified and may face fresh elections, he rushed most of his election promises fulfilled 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.
“Now, by promising regularisation of all the illegal commercial and residential buildings, Soren has made a further dent into our votebank,” pointed out a BJP leader.
“With the Supreme Court denying a CBI probe into the corruption charges, the ED has apparently no adequate proof to nail the chief minister till now. Had it been so, Soren would not have declared in Palamu that he will answer every question eye to eye (Ankh se ankh milakar har sawal ka jawab denge). He might have assessed the seriousness of charges by the questions posed to him during his interrogation,” pointed out a legal expert.
Incidentally, the ED is now mainly busy in protecting the predicate FIRs 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.
Also, Governor Ramesh Bais is mysteriously sitting over the Election Commission recommendation on the Chief Minister’s disqualification petition apparently waiting for an “opportune” moment.
The BJP, on the other hand, is on the defensive. It is virtually begging for answers to counter Hemant Soren’s 1932 domicile policy or the OBC reservation, though both the policies are not constitutionally valid.
“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,” pointed out a political watcher.
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.
Also, 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.
“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 requesting anonymity.
However, the BJP leaders are active on Twitter, There have been a series of tweets from Marandi from the liquor scam to illegal mining scams and many other issues every day, perhaps taking a cue from firebrand BJP MP Nishikant Dubey whose tweets made several headlines when the ED began investigation in NAREAGA and illegal mining scams in Jharkhand.
BJP state president Deepak Prakash is another leader who is also active on social media. Arjun Munda, though active on social media, does not tweet on the Hemant Soren Government. His tweets mainly focus on his achievements and his development plans in his home constituency Khunti.
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