As the Jharkhand assembly elections enters the fourth phase, all political parties are keeping their fingers crossed. Senior Jharkhand Congress leader Subodh Kant Sahay spoke to THE WEEK on Congress's chances of coming back to power. Excerpts:
BJP is hoping to get 65-plus seats in the assembly election. Your response?
BJP is a party of slogans. Every elections, they come up with new slogans. And I feel, getting 65 plus will only be a slogan. I can see a strong anti-BJP and anti-Raghubar Das wave sweeping across the state. Earlier, BJP had slogans like Ghar-Ghar Raghubar. But later, they changed it to Mission 65.
How confident Congress and its allies are in the state, especially when all NDA allies are fighting independently?
For the first time, BJP's ally of 19 years—All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU)—has left it and is contesting solo. Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP and Nitish Kumar's JD(U) have also quit NDA. These three are contesting on more than 50 seats. BJP has to first fight its allies before it can take on the opposition. On the contrary, UPA is united and confident of winning.
How far has the BJP-led government succeeded to control the Naxalism in the state?
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Naxalism is still an important issue in the state and, to my knowledge, BJP government has not done much. While Union Home Minister Amit Shah praised the state government for eradicating Naxalism from the state, Election Commission came out with the finding that of the 24 districts in the state, 19 are Naxal-affected. Then who is lying? The Union home minister or EC?
BJP claims that it has given a stable government to Jharkhand.
Jharkhand is a state where 22 people died of hunger. The word 'mob lynching' started from here! Twenty-four such incidents have happened in the past couple of years. And more than two dozen farmers have committed suicide. Of 19 years, BJP has ruled the state for 17 years. Now, they are talking about stability. Strange.
BJP leaders are raising the issue of Ram temple and abrogation of Article 370 during the campaign. Will these issue have an impact on the state polls?
Issues like Ram temple or abrogation of Article 370 do not matter for voters of Jharkhand. Here, people are only worried about water, jungle and land. In the 17 years of BJP governance in the state, nearly 90 per cent of industries have shut down. From a surplus budget state, Jharkhand now has a debt of Rs 84,000 crore.
Raghubar Das became the first non-tribal chief minister of the tribal-dominated state. He is accused of harming tribal rights. Your opinion?
Here is not a question of being tribal or non-tribal, as our Constitution gives equal right to everyone. But, the Raghubar Das-led government took measures to harm the tribal population. Jharkhand had Chotanagpur Tenancy Act and Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act, since the pre-Independence era. This law gives rights to the tribal people to protect their land from the government as well as business houses. But, the Raghubar Das government tried to amend the law to acquire the tribal land.
So, if your party comes to power, will you change this law?
Yes, certainly. We will reverse this law. There is no policy for minerals despite Jharkhand having the country's 40 per cent of minerals. Our government will make efforts to capitalise on the natural wealth of Jharkhand to make the state self-reliant.
