THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK
Ranchi, Oct. 27: Jharkhand BJP chief Babulal Marandi today said that the Adivasi card being played by Chief Minister Hemant Soren will not save him from the ED action in multi-crore corruption cases.
“The people of Jharkhand had given him a mandate with great expectations and not to loot Jharkhand along with corrupt officers and middlemen,” he said.
Marandi, a former Jharkhand chief minister, speaking to this writer a day ahead of concluding his 40-day ‘Sankalp yatra’, maintained that the tribal identity of Hemant Soren was not stopping the ED from taking coercive action against him, particularly at this juncture when the elections are scheduled in five states next month, to ensure his interrogation in the Ranchi land scam cases.
Rejecting the allegation that the BJP was behind the ED’s five summons to Soren, Marandi asked, didn’t Lord Krishna forgive 100 sins of Shishupal? Krishna released his Sudarshan Chakra (a spinning disk-like weapon), and beheaded Shishupal after he committed the 101st sin.
Soren has often attacked the BJP, claiming that the saffron party was not able to digest the people’s mandate given to a party dominated by tribals and locals. “They (BJP) possess a feudal mentality and cannot see tribals, Dalits, and oppressed growing,” he has said.
“How many officers and middlemen lodged in jail in various cases are Adivasis? Are Prem Prakash, Pankaj Mishra, Pooja Singhal, Amit Agarwal or Chhavi Ranjan are Adivasis? Then, why is Hemant Soren shielding them? The ED has furnished adequate evidence to lodge an FIR against them given a Supreme Court judgment. Still, he is sitting over them,” Marandi pointed out.
“So, an Adivasi card being played by him is a desperate attempt to hide his sins and mislead the innocent public. A corrupt is a corrupt no matter which caste, community, or religion he belongs. The Modi government is not going to spare them. The people of Jharkhand too will throw him out next year,” Marandi, who has been tasked by the BJP leadership to reclaim the tribal vote base in Jharkhand, contended.
Marandi said that Corruption will be the number one issue during elections next year followed by the issues of deteriorating law & order and poor development in Jharkhand.
“The main question is who is raising this issue. When VP Singh went public with the Bofors scandal he too had been ridiculed. However, the issue ultimately marginalized the Congress in Indian politics. Again, Anna Hazare raked up the corruption cases piled up against the 10-year regime of the Manmohan Singh government, and the Congress was decimated in 2014,” he recalled.
“Electorates submit to Goondas and corrupt politicians when there is no alternative.
But, when there is a strong alternative, people opt for it against the corrupt government,” Marandi maintained.
The former chief minister rejected the common perception that Hemant Soren has consolidated his electoral position after the central agencies only barked with weak evidence of corruption cases against him.
“Had it been so, Soren would not have lodged half a dozen cases against him or for that matter got the ACB book former BJP ministers,” he maintained.
Marandi said the ‘Sankalp yatra’ had been taken out to let people know the misdeeds of the Hemant Soren government and also to refresh their memories of the achievements of the previous BJP governments.
“And after having addressed 74 public meetings across the State I can say it has been successful. The concluding public meeting will be addressed by BJP chief J P Nadda tomorrow when we will work out our future course of action. Our main agenda is to re-elect Narendra Modi as the next prime minister,” he signed off.
