Marandi domicile policy tests NDA unity

Singh told reporters the domicile policy won’t help the state. ‘‘It is discriminatory to the core. And if it is not amended, it will disqualify many Jharkhand residents, who have been living in this state for long, from getting any government job,’’ he said.

The law was brought into force after widespread demand from tribal-dominated outfits and parties such as JMM and Adivasi Chatra Sangh (ACS), a popular body of Adivasi youths backed by several Catholic Church members.

The policy was notified last year and welcomed by JMM and ACS. Trouble surfaced when early this month Jharkhand Police advertised for constables. On July 9, Singh’s supporters, under the banner of Jharkhand Upechkshit Yuva Manch, called a bandh in Dhanbad. The same day, Manch workers ransacked the Circle Office and smashed windscreens of a dozen vehicles in Dhanbad.

In Bokaro, Manch workers reportedly held the Circle Officer (CO) captive. The COs, the authorities who issue domicile certificates, had refused certificates to some youths denying them the chance to fill applications for constable’s vacancies.

The Manch members were not confined to the Samata alone. The BJP and the JD(U), other constituents of the NDA, too were present. About 50 of them were arrested after they blocked National Highway 32. The next day, hundreds of Jamshedpur youths burnt Marandi’s effigy.

The Dhanbad protesters have announced a Raj Bhavan gherao on July 21. Former Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana HC M. Rama Jois, also the VHP’s legal advisor, is scheduled to take oath as the new Governor on July 15. The day after the Manch’s agitation, ACS workers retaliated and stoned Singh’s house and said: ‘‘Anybody with anti-Adivasi mindset will be driven out of Jharkhand.’’

Later, Singh’s press advisor Raj Kumar Singh filed an FIR at Lalpur police station against the attack, accusing ACS secretary Mahesh Bhagat and its vice-president Chamra Linda.

Samata state general-secretary Rajiv Ranjan Mishra threatened to agitate if the attackers were not arrested within 24 hours.

With Marandi reiterating not to alter the domicile policy, all eyes are now fixed on the constables’ recruitment. And the lines have been drawn for agitations to come.