Governance may suffer again in Jharkhand.
The lion of Santhal is roaring again. Shibu Soren, the best known mass leader of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), has said that he will be the chief minister of Jharkhand again. The numbers say he is not lying. The Congress-Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) alliance has got 25 seats while the BJP-JDU alliance has 20 seats in the new 81-member Assembly. The JMM has won 18 seats. Lalu Prasad’s RJD has won five seats, while other parties have bagged 13 seats. Obviously Shibu Soren will decide who will form the government. In this, he has once again proved that there is no Left, no Right, in Jharkhand. He is open to discussing offers.
The BJP, which has just got a new president in Nitin Gadkari, is ready to do business with Soren. Gadkari met his predecessor, Rajnath Singh and told him that the BJP must form a government in Jharkhand, come what may. So the party is burying in the archives, the bitter speeches against Soren it had made during the election and on the floor of Parliament. The Congress has decided it is better off in the opposition, making a virtue out of a necessity. The Congress and the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha(JVM) had contested the election in an alliance. JVM leader Babulal Marandi is one of the few leaders to still have some credibility in Jharkhand. The Congress can’t dump Marandi and plump for Soren — the two are bitter rivals. So, Soren is all set to become Santhal raja again after fighting for 30 or more years for an independent state.
Jharkhand has contributed some very famous, proud sons to India — Birsa Munda’s anti-British struggle is chronicled in history. The other great leader of the Jharkhand was Jaipal Munda, whose legacy was inherited by Soren after he died.
Soren’s idea was that Jharkhand was fashioned by an agitation against the “diku” (outsider). The three hated figures in Jharkhand when it was part of undivided Bihar were the Chhota (Sikh transporters who attempted to “colonise” the region); the Sota (the strongmen of eastern UP who flowed into Jharkhand believing they could hold sway over an unlettered cowering mass of tribals) and the Lota (the Marwari trader). In his younger days, Soren was a Scarlet Pimpernel kind of character for the tribals. This is why, for the Jharkhand tribals, no matter how outrageous his antics — whether allegation of “bribery” levelled against the Narasimha Rao regime to which the JMM MPs were party, or sundry ongoing murder cases — Shibu Soren is blameless. It doesn’t matter that Jharkhand has some of the lowest Human Development Index indicators, and tribals continue to be at the receiving end of both the Maoists and the state.
In his heyday, Soren’s support in Jharkhand had to be seen to be believed. But like tribals everywhere — whether in West Bengal or in Nagaland — there was no political strategy in what his colleagues did. In the undivided Bihar Assembly, JMM always had 40 or 50 MLAs at any given time. They were the currency of the ruling regime in Patna. Indeed, Lalu Prasad has had dealings with JMM which have saved his government at least once, if not on more occasions.
However, like all big leaders, Soren found it impossible to make way for a new leadership, which led to rebellion against him. Also, the new Jharkhandi began to realise that though he owed his standing to the devotion of the tribals, the demographic structure of the state was undergoing a change.
Several younger leaders saw merit in doing deals with the Church; with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)’s Seva Bharati and other Hindu tribals outfits. The slogan was now not “against the diku” but “with the diku”.
It was this pragmatic view of politics that has brought the JMM to what it is today, with leaders like Karia Munda, Arjun Munda and Babulal Marandi becoming challengers to Soren. The problem is that Soren —like other tribal outfits — has never leveraged his leadership, but only his numerical strength, in his politics. And his leadership, if only he would develop it for his people, does count for something. Soren is a Santhali. Because of urbanisation, tribal society is acquiring many of less than wholesome social features of the plains. Dowry is now not unheard of. Alcoholism is widespread. Soren has led several movements for social reform: Both against dowry and drinking. This is why he is called “guruji”.
But when it comes to governance, he needs to be led. Whether Jharkhand will see one more merry-go-round of graft cases, criminalisation and defections remains to be seen. In any case, tribals are the ones who are going to lose.
