NEW DELHI: Endowed with approximately 40 per cent mineral deposits in India, Jharkhand was born as the 28th state on November 15, 2000 with immense potential. The last 14 years, however, have been a saga of political instability and rampant corruption resulting in missed opportunities.
Jharkhand today is the example of what a failed state looks like.
As the eastern Indian state, carved out of Bihar, gets ready to undergo five-phased state legislative assembly elections starting Tuesday, political stability and corruption have become the major issues.
Jharkhand has before itself examples of its western neighbour Chhattisgarh which came into being merely a fortnight before Jharkhand was born. Chhattisgarh has joined the list of smaller states like Himachal Pradesh and Haryana who have realised their potential in terms of development after their creations. Chhattisgarh today is rated as the fastest developing Indian state.
Demand for creation of a separate state for the indigenous tribal started soon after India’s independence from the colonial British rule in 1947. A movement started in 1949 and gained momentum in 1972 when Shibu Soren founded the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (Free Jharkhand Movement). JMM led a long and arduous movement, at times armed guerrilla struggle, before the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government decided to create three new Indian states, namely Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand by bifurcating big states Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar respectively in 2000.
However, since then Jharkhand has witnessed formations of nine governments under five chief ministers and three rounds of President’s Rule totalling nearly two years. The most farcical was swearing-in of Shibu Soren as the chief minister in March 2005 for 10 days when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had the clear majority with the support of independents and smaller parties. The most ludicrous installation of an independent Madhu Koda as the chief minister in 2006 after toppling the BJP government headed by Arjun Munda. Koda ruled for nearly two years and spent almost four years in prison on charges of heading a mining scam estimates to be worth Rs34 billion (Dh2.02 billion). Koda’s properties worth Rs1.44 billion stand attached through a court order.
The reason for such political instability in Jharkhand can be attributed to the lust of power and money of Shibu Soren and wrong placed policies of the Congress party which ruled at the centre for 10 years to prevent arch-rival BJP from forming the government in the state. The Congress party which had won 13 seats in 2009 state polls is struggling hard to win even half a dozen seats now after its ties with the JMM ended following failure of seat sharing talks between the two parties.
Soren has kept switching sides merely to ensure that either he becomes the Jharkhand chief minister or a cabinet minister at the centre with his favourite coal ministry. Soren spent time in jail on corruption and murder charges and managed to get his son Hemant Soren installed as the state chief minister with the Congress party’s help in July last year.
With both Congress party and JMM stand discredited, BJP has emerged as the favourite to win majority on its own in the 82-member assembly in which one member from the Anglo-Indian community is nominated.
The Narendra Modi magic was visible in Jharkhand even in the summer general elections when BJP won 12 out of 14 Lok Sabha seats from the state.
Since then BJP’s graph has been going up and the party is once again seeking votes in the name of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is its star campaigner. Modi in his rallies is seeking votes on the name of political stability, end of dynastic (Soren) rule and giving examples of how neighbouring Chhattisgarh where Raman Singh government of BJP is running third successive term, has developed while Jharkhand has lagged behind.
Jharkhand facts and figures
Total number of seats going to poll: 81.
Total number of voters: 21,750,931
Result in 2009
BJP: 18
JMM: 18
Congress party: 13
Jharkhand Vikas Morcha: 11
All Jharkhand Students Union: 6
Rashtriya Janata Dal: 5
Janata Dal (United): 2
Independents: 2
Others: 6
Key issues
Political instability
Rampant corruption
Lack of development
Growing unemployment
Lack of drinking water in many areas
Failure to control Maoist guerrillas
Key players
Hemant Soren: Incumbent chief minister of JMM, contesting Dumka seat.
Arjun Munda: Thrice BJP chief minister, contesting Kharsawa seat.
Raghuvar Das: BJP national vice president, contesting Jamshedpur East seat.
Sukhdeo Bhagat: State president of the Congress party, contesting Lohardaga seat.
Sudesh Mahato: Former deputy chief minister and chief of AJSU party, contesting Silli seat.
