Uneasy calm in Ranchi as vote count begins

NATION | Thursday, February 17, 2011

VIJAY DEO JHA | RANCHI

A strange, almost eerie silence seems to mark the run-up to the counting day of the Kharsawan bypoll. For once the warring camps have fallen silent, locked in meditation and prayer, and a fervent wish to emerge winner. Interestingly though, there were no tall claims of victory, not even in a whisper!

Chief Minister and BJP candidate Arjun Munda is caught in a tough battle with the Opposition-supported JVM candidate Dashrath Gagrai aka Krishan Gagrai. Kharsawan poll is bound to be the most bitterly-fought affair of the State following Tamar Assembly, where the then Chief Minister Shibu Soren had faced the most humiliating defeat of his political career, the wound of which he nurses even today.

Munda’s bete noire, Babulal Marandi of the JVM, had assiduously done all to corner his rival. After all, Marandi had tried his best to smother Munda by raising contentious issues like CNT Act, PESA Act, displacement of tribals in his (Munda) own territory. Munda countered and convinced his electorate about a probable plot of the Opposition to put a break on the development of the State which he is chauffeuring.

Whether Marandi’ poll mechanism will work or not, will be known by Thursday afternoon when the counting gets over.

Not only the fate of Munda, but the also the fate of the State’s politics will be decided in this election. The fine sheet of the election result will be nothing but a document to establish whether Kharsawan belongs to Munda — partially or totally. He laboured hard to maintain his impressive record of winning the election in Kharsawan by a phenomenal margin. Speculations of marginal fall in his winning tally has come to disturb the BJP, nevertheless, his close aides are hopeful that this time too he will win with an impressive record.

If Munda wins he can claim having got the mandate for development. For Marandi, even the defeat, will be a trophy being the only robust Opposition with a lethal potential to tame and maim Munda and his party in the coming days. To cry or to laugh, is a classic Congress conundrum, the JVM has already pushed its ally to the wall by wresting Kharsawan seat. Congress’ role as a credible Opposition will be at stake in the coming days too. Who will have last laugh? Guess?

Down but not out, Munda remains Arjun in Kharsawan battle
RANCHI | Friday, February 18, 2011

VIJAY DEO JHA / PARVINDAR BHAT

RANCHI / JAMSHEDPUR

If Kharsawan largely decided to stay with BJP candidate and chief minister Arjun Munda, it did not reject JVM chief Babulal Marandi either.

Munda on Thursday; won the Kharsawan by-election against his only rival, Dashrath Gagrai aka Krishna Gagrai of the JVM, by a modest margin of 17,366 votes. Munda netted 61,701 votes against a total poll cast of around 70 against Gagrai who ended much impressively with 44,335 votes.

The tally is much below the expectation of his own party that expected him to repeat his impressive victory for the fourth consecutive time. Munda entered into the electoral politics for the first time in 1995 as the JMM candidate when he defeated his Congress rival and stalwart, Vijay Singh Soi.

The election result has come with a bold message: Kharsawan belongs to Munda — not his party, mind you. Assembly election 2000, Munda contested from Kharsawan as the BJP candidate against Congress' Vijay Singh Soi. Voters whacked Soi so badly in the poll fray that the man withdrew from active politics thereafter. A critical edge of around 15.60 per cent over Soi had hustled him to win. He left his opponents to gnash and grind in 2005 when he defeated Congress' Kunti Soi with an unbridgeable margin of 55,334 votes.

Even in 2009, when he fielded Mangal Singh Soi - more a doorkeeper than his aide - it was Munda who was pulled the strings. In 2005, Munda had set a benchmark of victory for himself that he was wished and widely reported to maintain. But how come, the man himself did not know?

But then, politics to him is much like the game of golf that he passionately played at the Golf Club in Jamshedpur even when the counting was going on. It was even when he was trailing by a margin of 21 and 807 votes in the second and fourth round of the counting. He was perfect in pushing the ball to the hole when he registered a remarkable lead over the JVM candidate in the sixth round that he maintained till last.

Munda will not like to answer pointed posers whether the reduced winning margin, is a doctoral pulse of ground slowly turning against him.

"Margin does not matter in the winning. The election was fought by the people of Kharsawan and they have won. People have reposed faith in me and my government. My opponents had spread endless rumours during the campaign. They have been answered by the people," he told the media.

After the result, images started rolling on the television screen; Marandi and Munda engaged in a verbal duel claiming people on their side.

"Then why his ministers were camping for him if he claims people fought on his side. We had no base in Kharsawan, yet we netted so many votes against him even though our candidate is a rookie," Marandi said displaying no sign of defeat.

Privately, Marandi's observation will disturb Munda when he sits down to figure out the poll puzzle. But right now, he can draw solace in the fact that his winning has given a new lease of life to his government.

Munda in fact, made no mistake in discerning Marandi's strategy to engage him on key and contentious issues: PESA Act, CNT Act, displacement of tribals in the name of establishing industry.

But then, Munda dismayed Marandi, the chief architect of Opposition unity at the end of the day. Munda was actively supported and canvassed during campaigning by his alliance partners in the government: JMM, AJSU and JD (U).

The election result has come with a premium for Marandi, he can encash it in the coming days. At least, the result has firmly pronounced the future role of the JVM as a credible Opposition to BJP.

The election of Kharsawan is not the first and the last of its kind. On Thursday, Munda's deputy and JMM leader Hemant Soren congratulated Munda on behalf of his party and president, Shibu Soren.

"The combine effort of the alliance partners worked in the election. We expect him to work for development. We expect him to honour the coalition dharma in the coming days," Hemant said.

You can give expectation another name: Jamshedpur parliamentary constituency. After supporting Munda for Kharsawan, the JMM has now demanded Jamshedpur which will be vacated soon after Munda resigns from here.

Munda mocks at Marandi after Kharsawan triumph

VIJAY DEO JHA | RANCHI National Page

BJP Chief Minister Arjun Munda wriggled out of dozens of public celebrations following his victory in Kharsawan on his way from Jamshedpur and, fired a fresh salvo against JVM chief Babulal Marandi, here in Ranchi, on Friday.

Munda did not name Marandi in his thirty minutes of interaction with the media and his party workers but, he made it amply clear that the person he loathed to name was Marandi. Munda on Thursday defeated Opposition-backed JVM candidate Dashrath Gagrai aka Krishna Gagrai with a modest margin of around 17,000 votes.

"We have won the election with the support of the people, despite rumours and confusions being spread by some people to divide the electorate. They have got an apt reply," he said.

Resorting to puns Munda lampooned Marandi for spreading confusion over the CNT Act, PESA and other issues. "The government has scraped CNT Act to allow the loot of the land of the tribal and others…how cheap," he quipped.

Cautioning his rivals that politicians and political parties should refrain from breaching people's trust, he flayed Marandi and the Opposition for ignoring this.

"Political parties have the right to seek support of the people over any issue. But they tried to fool the voters of Kharsawan…and were rejected and rebuffed."

On the PESA Act, under which three-tier panchayat elections in Jharkhand were held, Munda accepted that certain sections of the society might not have got adequate representation. "This aspect certainly needed to be looked into," he said, "but in Kharsawan I was surprised to see those people raising bogey over PESA Act who as MPs during 1996 had helped enactment of PESA as law in the Parliament."

This was a direct hit at former MP Sailendra Mahato who campaigned against Munda on behalf of Marandi.

"Such people spoke thousands contradictory things over PESA and CNT to different people, even forgetting that what they spoke an hour before, contradicted what they spoke an hour later."

Terming the Panchayat elections in Jharkhand as a decisive push towards women empowerment, he reckoned that around 60 of the total women population have got a direct say in the governance.

"But we never indulged in dirty politics over Panchayat election. We never laid sole claim for conducting panchayat election. It is really sorry to see them," he fumed. Promising to give a corruption free and development-oriented government in Jharkhand he promised social harmony.

Scorning Marandi for announcing the fall of Munda government a day after the Kharsawan result, and formation of the next government soon after, the CM said "Under the name of election many such people visited Kharsawan and stayed there for long and returned empty handed," he quipped.

Even as Munda was cheering the loyalists; the JVM was holding a Press conference to denounce his victory as " gross misuse of government machinery and money."

And the problem with the scribes was they could not afford to skip either of the conferences.

Teaching a lesson to the pseudo Gandhians

Vijay Deo Jha

Gumla

The story hadn’t occurred to us until; finally, it tormented us for not noticing.
It was like any normal day and time when we accidentally came across 70 years old Rati Tana Bhagat at village Karaundi in Gumla district arguing with the census official that he must be documented as the follower of a religion that many might not have heard, surely.

“Satt Ahimsa Gandhi Baba (truth, non-violence, Gandhi Baba),” this is my religion. Put it in your census record against the column of religion in your register.
Sweating profusely, Rati was gasping for breath probably due chronic asthma but, emphatic enough to make census officer Jitiya Oraon jittery to accommodate his religion on the census chart. Oraon told us that he is a primary school teacher and also president of Gumla Primary Teachers’ Association. Oraon was aware of the passion of Tanas for Mahatma Gandhi but he had no courage to convince them that there exists no column in the census form about the religion they insists to mention.

“I respect your sentiment and attachment for Mahatma Gandhi but there is no such column of religion in the census form,” Oraon makes last effort to find a way out. But by this time it was too late. Oraon had received overdose of mild rebuff hoping he will come to understand that how Tanas had embraced Gandhi’s movement for freedom struggle and Gandhian philosophy sans sophistry.

The old man is in no mood to compromise with his religion. Suddenly around 50 inquisitive Tana Bhagats clad in Khadi after emerging from daily prayer of Gandhi, joined the old man.

They insisted and remained firm till the poor school teacher had duly mentioned them as the follower of Satt Ahimsa Gandhi Baba religion. There may not be too many followers of the religion of this kind, before it insists to qualify officially, as a distinct religion in the Gazette of the government: a mixture of the fine elements of Hinduism, Islam, Christianity and many others. But before Oraon can pack-up and proceed they had put their thumb impression so that none could temper with their belief.

True to his name, Budhiman Tana Bhagat talked intelligently about the fast shrinking number of Tana Bhagat in Jharkhand and their problem. What Budhiman told reflected that he had some schooling as he appeared well equipped with the problem of Tanas. “We are tribal…but we follow Gandhiji as religion. There are few pockets in Lohardaga and Gumla where Tanas are now live,” he rued. Bisunpur, Ghaghra, Chnadrkop, Bamandih, Gazani, Kuru and few other he listed. There is no official record available to ascertain their number.

The British government had confiscated 3000 acres of their land as punishment for their unquestioned support for Mahatma. “Our land has not been returned…we are still to be granted cultivation right. Please tell the government about our problem. A year back government had assured us but nothing happened,” Budhiman said. The previous government of Madhu Koda had even announced to return such lands to the Tanas that did not graduate beyond the promise.

They had a long list of complaint but that does not douse their undying passion for Mahatma and his philosophy.

It is census time: Different religious bodies have regrouped to swell their number. For Tanas it was prayer time of Mahatma with clang and cymbal. Let the children of one God demand right of way and privilege over children of another God and let them ram into communal retribution. Tanas are not that.

Keshav Rao removed from CWC, loses charge of Jharkhand, WB
March 05, Saturday

VIJAY DEO JHA | Ranchi

K Keshav Rao — a story of two triumphs and many failures in Jharkhand, was removed from the good books of Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Rao received a double thwack from Gandhi on Friday. He was not only removed from the post of AICC in-charge of Jharkhand, West Bengal and Andaman and Nicobar, but also from the central Congress working committee.

The Congress has brought its Bihar leader, former union minister and party's national spokesperson Shakil Ahmed to look after the affairs of these three states. The Assembly election of West Bengal is in the offing.

Congress sources speaking to The Pioneer attributed three reasons behind Rao's removal. First: His poor performance in handling faction-ridden Jharkhand Congress and poor performance of the party in the Parliamentary and Assembly elections. Second: His open advocacy for a separate Telangana State that often landed the Congress on a sticky wicket.

But as far as the third reason is concerned - his removal from West Bengal - is open criticism of Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee.

"She was not comfortable with the stand taken by Rao over creation of small states. She had lodged her concern with the party high command that Rao could be easily manoeuvered to support the cause of a separate Gorkhaland in West Bengal," a senior Congress leader said.

But the vital reason behind his removal remained the displeasure of Sonia Gandhi.

Rao was sent to Jharkhand to replace Ajay Maken who was not willing to continue as
Jharkhand Congress in-charge.

Rao at least has two achievements in Jharkhand to count as creditable. He manoeuvered JMM support for Congress' nominee in Rajya Sabha election 2009. Jharkhand was brought under President's rule and the JMM was desperate for Congress' support to form government. Smart politico Rao was quick to encash JMM's desperation and made JMM believe that the government formation exercise could be started only after the JMM supported Congress to win the RS seat. Naïve, JMM happily accepted the deal that ended in a dud when Rao refused to back any such initiative.

He became JMM's enemy number one, officially, and unofficially he earned some foes in his party too, who were desperate like any other JMM leader to form coalition government in Jharkhand.

Stitching an alliance with the Jharkhand Vikash Morcha in view of Jharkhand Assembly election was one of his successful efforts. The alliance produced two binary gains for the party, though small in measure. The Congress effectively used the support base of the JVM to increase its tally from 9 to 14. Clever enough not to give a long rope to the alliance partner in that election, Rao summed up JVM's claim for seats much below the expectations of JVM chief Babulal Marandi.

But then, he could not avoid becoming the pillar of factionalism in the party during and after the election. He was often blamed for maintaining status-quo for state Congress chief Pradeep Balmuchu who has overstayed the fixed tenure.

If he lured some to join the Congress he lost some faithful counts too like KK Agrawal, Alok Pathak, Bhukla Bhagat who openly blamed him and left the party.

Ahmed's appointment has been welcomed by the party. "He is an experienced leader and he is sure to inject fresh blood in the party," Congress leader Alok Dubey said.

After Rao's removal from the state scene, the camp lobbying for a fresh appointment of state Congress chief is feeling emboldened. Congress' fresh script this Friday was enough to cause grief to Rao.