Shibu Soren has never been able to remain in office for long – whether at the Centre or in the state. His first two terms as the Chief Minister of Jharkhand were short. In 2005, he remained in office barely for a week. He failed to obtain the confidence vote of the Assembly and had to quit. In 2008, his tenure as Chief Minister lasted a few months; he had to quit following his defeat in a by-election.How long will he last as he begins his third term with the BJP’s support? The Supreme Court is slated to hear in March 2010 a petition relating to his involvement in his personal secretary’s murder case. An adverse verdict may again cut short his third tenure in the chief ministerial office.
Soren could not last long as Union Minister because of his shady deals and dubious past. He had to quit as Union Coal Minister in the Manmohan Singh government in 2004 following an arrest warrant against him in the 30-year-old Chirudih case. He got bail after a month in the judicial custody. He was re-inducted in the Cabinet, apparently, as part of a deal for the Congress-JMM alliance before the Jharkhand Assembly elections in February-March 2005.
In 1993, along with his five party colleagues, Soren got embroiled in the infamous “JMM bribery scandal”. He was given Rs 30 lakh to ensure that the Narasimha Rao Government survived the confidence vote. How did Soren and his colleagues were caught? Simple tribals, as they were, Soren and his company thought their money would be safe if they deposited it with a nationalised bank. Soren deposited the money in the Punjab National Bank. He also invested in real estate and tactlessly brought the property in his own name.
Soren began his career by campaigning against moneylenders. He was venerated by the Santhal Pargana tribals. His initial days were spent in jungles, fighting the cause of poor people. With the passage of time, he became a politician and took over charge of the JMM from Nirmal Mahto, the party's founder. By early nineties, he carved out a strong base among tribal and backward people, particularly the Mahto community.
The rebellion in him was ignited when at the instigation of a money lender, his father, Shobaran Soren, was murdered. A young tribal lad then, Soren could not bear the loss. He vowed to get his region freed of the “tyrants”. Initially, his slogan was Jharkhand ko soshan se mukti doo (free Jharkhand from exploiters). Subsequently, the movement gave rise to a political party – Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) – and Soren became the torchbearer of the struggle.
The JMM supremo was the fulcrum of the movement for the separate tribal homeland for years. The demand for the separate statehood was raised by an Oxford educated Munda (a tribal) as far back as 1939 and since then it has fired the imagination of the people of the Jharkhand region. A political party named after the region – Jharkhand Party – was formed in 1950 with the objective of attaining the homeland for Adivasis, won 21 seats in the 1952 Bihar Assembly elections, repeated its performance in 1957 but withered away with its support base dwindling during the 1962 poll.
The sixties saw the exploitation of tribals touching a new high with moneylenders, landgrabbers, landlords, businessmen and forest mafia getting foothold in the coal and mica belts and bringing with them all the vices. They plundered the forests, seized the land of adivasis and desecrated the rivers. The tribal people called them contemptuously as “outsiders”.
Shibu Soren organised mining workers, Dalits, backward classes under one banner and posed a challenge to the mafia. He came to be known as the “jungle leader” and “tribal crusader”. With the murder of Soren's father, the struggle gathered further momentum. Since then, the son had only a one-point mission – to get a separate Jharkhand state. He finally succeeded.
The mafia exploited the Adivasis’ weakness for liquor and their abject poverty. Soren organised with the help of tribal youth the Matka foro (break the earthen liquor jar) movement. The mafia did not take kindly to Soren’s rising clout and used all its muscle and money power to break the movement. They succeeded in splitting the JMM many times but Shibu kept the movement alive and his party revived after each split.
Source: The Tribune, Chandigarh, India.
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