Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and the first Chief Minister of Jharkhand Babulal Marandi said the present CM Hemant Soren has betrayed the people of the State by failing to keep the promises he made. In an interview ahead of a poll campaign from Kodaibank village, Mr. Marandi accused Mr. Soren of corrupt practices and pandering to middlemen. Excerpts:
How do you see the Hemant Soren government of the last five years?
Hemant Soren has cheated the people of Jharkhand and also looted the resources of the State by getting involved in corruption. He did not fulfil a single promise made ahead of the last Assembly election. He had promised to give financial assistance of ₹72,000 annually, he had promised gold coins for women on the occasion of marriage, he had promised to provide pension of ₹2,500 per month to the disabled, widows and senior citizens, made assurances to people of creating five lakh jobs. He had even said that he would retire from politics if the promises were not kept and he had sworn this in the name of his father. How will people trust him now? He had promised unemployment allowance of ₹5,000 and ₹7,000 to undergraduate and postgraduate youth, respectively. He did nothing. I can say “Aiasa koi saga nahi, jisko Hemant ne thaga nahi” (There is no friend who has not been cheated by Hemant). He has mortgaged the entire State to the corrupt and middlemen, and now people are looking for change.
BJP brought Gogo-Didi Yojana after seeing the grand success of Maiya Samman Yojana.
The Hemant Soren government started this cash transfer scheme two or three months ago but the BJP has started such schemes in States such as Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and other BJP-ruled States long back. Hemant Soren has simply copied the scheme. It is not his brainchild.
You and most of the BJP leaders blame the JMM-RJD and the Congress for nepotism; however, your party has given tickets to sons and daughters-in-law of many politicians…
Contesting elections and getting tickets is not nepotism or dynasty politics. Nepotism means that the identity of the political party is derived from the particular family members. Like the Congress party, whose identity is the Nehru-Gandhi family and the party is being operated by this family. Though Mallikarjun Kharge is the president of the Congress, everyone knows that the party is being run and operated by Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhiji. Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s (JMM) identity is Shibu Soren and it is controlled by his family. In Bihar, the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s identity is Lalu Prasad and the party is controlled by his family.
Border security is an international matter and dealt with by the Centre. Then why are BJP leaders accusing Hemant Soren’s government of Bangladeshi infiltration?
The Bangladesh-India border is very long and it is not possible to deploy forces everywhere, so there is infiltration through mountains, forest and water. Once they enter, what is the job of the State government? Is the State government allowed to give them ration cards and settle them here? Is the State government allowed to issue Aadhar cards or include their names in the voters’s list? The State government should identify them, make a list and send it to the Central government to report that illegal migrants have entered the State. But here, the State government is not accepting that there is infiltration. It is even lodging an affidavit in the High Court that there are no illegal migrants.
The BJP has promised to bring the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in Jharkhand but Hemant Soren has said that only the Chota Nagpur Tenancy (CNT), Santhal Pargana Tenancy (SPT) Acts will be there, not the UCC.
The CNT-SPT Acts already exist in Jharkhand. In fact, these Acts were violated the most in Jharkhand. Hemant Soren sold the tribal land through brokers from Kolkata. The Enforcement Directorate has approached the High Court to seek permission to investigate the matter. Once the BJP is voted to power, the CNT-SPT Acts would be implemented strictly and action would be taken against those who have violated it. We have already announced that the tribals would be kept out of the UCC ambit.
You’re one of the top contenders for the post of Chief Minister. Your comment?
It’s nothing as such; whatever the central leadership and party decides, we just follow it. I am just a party worker and as the BJP State president, I am only leading the party in Jharkhand.
In Kolhan region (14 seats), the BJP could not even win a single seat in the last Assembly election.
This election, the BJP will win more seats than JMM in Kolhan region. The NDA will definitely perform better than it did in the last election. This time, the AJSU (All Jharkhand Students Union) is also the party of the NDA, so we will win seats in Kolhan.
Kalpana Soren calls you chacha (uncle) but you call them (Hemant and Kalpana Soren) Bunty aur Babli (a reference to a Bollywood film where the lead actors con the people).
Yes, I did call them so because every time, they come up with different ideas to cheat people. If they are caught cheating people, then they find another way to cheat them.
The JMM-Congress and the RJD accuse the BJP of doing divisive politics and spreading hatred in society in the name of religion.
Those who are saying so have done politics their entire life in the name of religion and caste. The BJP believes in sabka saath sabka vikas (development for all). If you see, all the schemes of the Central government are reaching all sections of people. When Atal Bihari Vajpayee was Prime Minister, the BJP came up with Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana under which concrete roads would be constructed in all villages having a population of 1,000, irrespective of any religion and caste criteria. You can check other schemes of the Central government; they are for everyone. We are just calling for a united society, if the society is divided then others will rule us, this is what the British did.
The INDIA bloc says the BJP will end reservation if voted to power.
They are telling lies and issuing false statements, they are the ones who have made amendments in the Constitution over a hundred times. No one has given so much respect to the Constitution the way the government of Narendra Modiji has given.
Published – November 18, 2024 09:49 pm IST
