GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER
Shibu Soren's conviction will hardly make a difference to his own
public stature or to the political future of Jharkhand, argues Sumanta
Sen.

Telegraph, Dec. 14, 2006

Still their hero

The conviction of Shibu Soren in the Shashinath Jha murder case is, by
itself, not that important. In fact, such a development should be seen
as natural in the context of the criminalization of politics,
particularly in the Hindi heartland. What effect this may have on the
Madhu Koda ministry in Jharkhand is also not important. That ministry
has no business to be there in the first place as the people of the
state did not want it. Its birth was an outcome of horse-trading, one
of the many aspects of the criminalization of politics. Indeed, the
ordinary man in Bihar or Jharkhand has become so used to such things
that he is not bothered.

Over the years, the society in Patna or Ranchi has come to accept
murder as 'normal'. This became abundantly clear during one's stay in
Patna. The head of the family in whose house one lived as a tenant had
been murdered, as also a close relation of a junior colleague in the
office. Such murders also take place elsewhere, but what was strange
was the nonchalance with which these incidents were narrated. The
gentlemen were rich and influential, and so it was taken to be natural
for them to get bumped off.

More natural, certainly, for those in politics. Some years ago, the
then railway minister, Lalit Narayan Mishra, had succumbed to bomb
injuries at Samastipur. It was suspected that he would not have died
if proper medical attention had not been 'denied' him, allegedly under
instructions from faraway New Delhi. But those who continued to make
the allegations were not bothered. "Lalitbabu knew too much and had to
be silenced"— was the explanation, as if this was most ordinary. The
same explanation is now being offered in the case of Shashinath Jha.
It is the influential who are privy to secrets, and the price for such
knowledge is death. Why should civil society bother?

As for Shibu Soren, the present conviction may be followed by others.
He is one of the accused in the 1975 Chirudih mass massacre, for which
he was arrested and later released on bail. The case is still on.
Whether Guruji is really guilty is for the courts to decide. What can
be said for certain at this moment is that even if he is kept behind
bars for the rest of his life, Soren's image among his followers will
not take the kind of beating that urbanites in distant cities would
expect it to. For even if he did arrange the murder of his former
secretary, he did not do anything out of the ordinary.

The trouble is that the questions raised in metropolitan India by the
sophisticated people — and they dominate the media also — are often of
little relevance in the dusty fields of the nation's countryside. New
Delhi or Mumbai or Calcutta may squirm at the sight of a Lalu Prasad
remaining unconcerned after spending days in a Patna jail, but his
constituents are clearly not bothered. Shibu Soren got bail in the
Chirudih case, he was not declared innocent. But that did not stop him
from demanding that his office be returned to him (he did get it back)
or even staking his claim to the chief minister's chair at Ranchi
after the numbers-game was made to go against Arjun Munda. Both Prasad
and Soren would have been less brazen if they had a disapproving
society to think of, but they knew it wasn't there. The reality in
Bihar, Jharkhand, and perhaps in other states also, is far removed
from the perceptions of the Western-educated in the seminar halls and
media studios.

There is also another point to be considered. The charge doing the
rounds is that Jha had been killed because he was not only aware of
the bribe that the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha had been paid but because he
also demanded a share of the booty. But who had benefited from that
bribe in a much larger way? It was the Congress ministry at the
Centre. Former prime minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, was found not
guilty, but has the last been heard of that ugly episode? There would
not have been a murder case if that bribe had not been paid. If Soren
had really been responsible for the murky deed, then can't it be
argued that the responsibility for the "original sin" lay elsewhere?

So what happens now in Jharkhand? Together with the news of Shibu
Soren's conviction had come the suggestion that his party may now fall
into pieces. It is difficult to understand why. Soren is certainly the
face of the party but he is also not its sole limb. As long as the
other limbs are there, a new face can always emerge. Also, over many
years, he has been an iconic figure, and an icon can be kept alive
from even inside iron bars. Particularly as long as his followers feel
that their dream of a new life in a state of their own can only be
realized as long as they stick to Soren's path.

The tribal leaders in the Bharatiya Janata Party have clearly let
these people down, and have now fallen apart. The Congress offers no
space for them, never did. As for the suggestion that a regional party
tends to disintegrate if the leader is not around, it should be
understood that the JMM is not like the Trinamool Congress. The former
was born out of a definite urge for self-determination and not for the
realization of the personal ambitions of an individual or two. Also,
the Telugu Desam Party did not fold up with the passing away of N.T.
Rama Rao or the Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu with the death of
Annadurai. Unlike them, Shibu Soren was not the founding father of the
Jharkhand movement. His absence will not mean that there is no one
else to keep it going.

As for the Madhu Koda ministry, it may well collapse if the JMM(S)
decides to withdraw support because of some twisted perception that
Soren could have been saved if the Centre had so willed. After all,
there is the feeling that in Bihar, Lalu Prasad is being 'looked
after' by the Manmohan Singh government because of the key role he
plays in the United Progressive Alliance's staying in power. But even
if president's rule comes to be imposed in Jharkhand and elections
held next year, a clear picture may not emerge. Unless, of course,
Sonia Gandhi, Shibu Soren (even from inside prison), Lalu Prasad, the
left parties — all join hands to keep the National Democratic Alliance
at bay. Unless that happens, the Raj Bhavan at Ranchi may become
active once more.

Right now, of course, all this is in the realm of conjecture. However,
one can say with some certainty that tears are unlikely to be shed if
the present arrangement collapses. There were hardly any tears when
earlier ministries fell, except perhaps by groups of traders who did
not belong to tribal communities. The new state was created to
safeguard their interests. At present, of course, another set of
people has taken up the tribals' cause, and a deepening of
administrative and political crisis can only be good news for them.