By Arun Srivastava
With less than a month left for holding of the assembly election in Jharkhand, the INDIA bloc is gearing up to frustrate any attempt by Narendra Modi and his lieutenant Amit Shah to repeat Haryana results in this tribals dominated state.
Members of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha think tank had sent alert to the INDIA bloc cadres and volunteers at the ground level and asked them to ensure that the EVMs are not tempered by the CEC officials. Their view is also shared by the state chief minister Hemant Soren. The JMM leaders strongly nurse the view that more the people ventilate their frustration and anger towards BJP and Modi, the saffron ecosystem and especially Modi resort to more mechanism to subvert and hack the EVMs.
With the testament of winning Jharkhand assembly election getting more important for Narendra Modi, for countering the power balance inside the saffron ecosystem, hacking of the EVMs and subverting popular peoples’ mandate in his favour is the only means to exhibit his authority and image. What happened in Haryana has made them conscious of the importance of guarding the EVMs.
Even at the ground level, the people do not appear to be dissatisfied with the performance of Hemant Soren. The tribals are quite content and satisfied with his political decisions and move to protect their land rights and accord prominence to their religious symbol Sarna. They nurse the view that Hemant should be given some more time to provide a concrete shape to the programmes and policies which he had launched and initiated for the welfare of the tribals.
While well-known advocacy group Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha (JJM) regrets that even after two years, the Hemant Soren government has failed to fulfill many promises that it had made during the 2019 assembly elections, it has a word of praise for Hemant government for “visible improvement in the communal atmosphere”, as seen in the commendable initiative of the recent bill against lynching and mob violence, and it showed a “firm commitment for the rights of migrant workers during and after the Covid lockdown”. They expect that Hemant should have reversed pro-corporate amendments carried out in the land laws by erstwhile BJP government, land bank policy and forced land occupation by the previous BJP government.
The JMM leaders however have their own clarification; Modi did not allow Hemant to work and fulfill all his promises within the time frame by creating numerous administrative hurdles. But even then he implemented a number important policies. His incarceration and subsequent splitting the party by luring Champai Soren are cited as some of the glaring moves of Modi. Senior JMM leaders unravel the plot hatched out by Shah to split the party, just before release of Hemant from jail.
The sources point out that his release suddenly changed the scenario. Hemant was not in hurry to come back to office of chief minister. But he was forced to act. Crores of cash was brought to Jharkhand for purchasing the loyalty of the JMM MLAs. Unfortunately for Modi-Shah combine the legislators exposed the nasty design and Hemant had to rush to remove Champai as the CM and take command.
Nevertheless the Modi-Shah combine have been planning to project Champai as the party face. But this is being vehemently protested by old veterans. They openly challenge his quality of leadership. On his part Champai Soren wrote an open letter to the youth, promising them 2.87 lakh jobs if the BJP is voted to power in the state, besides self-employment opportunities for 5 lakh people. In order to entice them, he said the future rests on the shoulders of the youth power and they must nurture dreams, hopes and aspirations from the state of Jharkhand which is barely 24 years old. Taking a cue from Modi’s Pulwama speech, Champai also said; “Many of you will be voting for the first time. A special request to those young friends is that by voting for BJP in Jharkhand, you can strengthen the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.
While the Jharkhand election would test leadership quality of Modi, it would witness muscle flexing by the RSS. In fact RSS leadership is in a dilemma; whether to support the BJP candidates or withdraw from the electoral exercise. The sources maintain that RSS is still to make a decision, but ultimately it appears that the RSS leadership may not opt for complete boycott. They will choose the candidates and if the indications emanating from the ground are to be relied, the RSS workers would completely boycott turncoat candidates.
BJP winning Jharkhand will strengthen Modi much to the detriment of RSS. Obviously RSS will abhor a strong Modi. One aspect of the November election is quite noticeable. In May Modi was specifically fighting his political enemy, true enough not his professional rival, Rahul Gandhi. But this is going to be a real battle of supremacy inside the saffron family. It may sound to be loathsome that Modi’s political survival, whether he would continue to call the shots in the saffron ecosystem and remain the prime minister or he would have to abide by RSS directive, will depend on November 23 results.
Like Modi the political future of Rahul Gandhi is also interwoven with the outcome of the November electoral battle. Of course he would continue to b e the leader of the Congress, but the mission dollar question would is whether he would succeed in commanding the respect from other opposition parties which he now gets. Like the ostensible perception that the future of Congress and especially of Rahul Gandhi is linked to their performance in the assembly elections to Maharashtra and Jharkhand, the future of the RSS and its chief Mohan Bhagwat is also related to it. Modi will not spare any opportunity to dissipate the influence of RSS and Bhagwat.
The tribals of Jharkhand are sceptical of BJP. They have been witness to the BJP leaders and its government turning the state into a colony of the Gujarati businessmen. Ragubar Das government had used extreme form of coercive methods to force the tribals to part with their lands and give that to corporate houses and especially to Adani group. Modi is desperate to have his government in Jharkhand so that he can help the economic interest of Adani. It is a known fact that with Hemant Soren in the seat of chief minister, Modi and Adani are finding it tough to manoeuvre the situations and things according to their wishes.
While electoral victory will simply add to the strength of Modi and Amit Shah, precisely it will also push the RSS and especially its chief Mohan Bhagwat to retreat and stymie his remove Modi mission. Modi will use electoral success to diktat RSS leaders as he has been doing in last ten years. Incidentally he will not gain an upper hand in saffron ecosystem, but he would also make the opposition crawl, as was seen before formation of INDIA bloc.
Hemant Soren is scared of the angst of some of his own men, particularly old communist and Marxist allies. With the merger of Marxist Communist Centre (MCC) of famous Marxist trade unionist A K Ray, into CPI(ML) the communists have considerably expanded their network and base. The JMM leaders at no cost will like to wreck their decades old relation with Marxists. A K Ray, Binod Behari Mahato and Shibu Soren had fought may battles for the liberation of Adivasis from the exploitation of the outsiders, the Dikus, and the big business houses.
True enough, JMM association with the Communists has refurbished its image amongst the tribals and common people of Jharkhand. It is this combination which has made the JMM to stand and fight the communal and rightist forces. As compared to the previous government, there has been visible improvement in the communal atmosphere in the State. The recent bill against lynching and mob violence is a commendable initiative. The government also showed a firm commitment for the rights of migrant workers during and after the Covid lockdown.
The JMM sources maintain that the process of seat sharing which began on October 19, would be a smooth affair. But this time they were not willing to be bullied by RJD of Lalu Yadav. JMM sources also point out that in the Lok Sabha elections, INDIA bloc could have performed more commendable, if the RJD had not created unnecessary problems. This time nonetheless the JMM leadership is determined not to allow more space to RJD. Instead they will accommodate more communist candidates taking into account their influence. (IPA
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