More tribal than thou

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s threat to break ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party if its leader Shibu Soren is not given the coveted chief ministership of the proposed Jharkhand state shows how removed the party is from reality. It, perhaps, does not realise that the Jharkhand ground had slipped from under its feet a long time ago. The demographic profile of the region has also undergone a metamorphosis during the fifty-odd years of the Jharkhand movement so much so that the region is no longer tribal-dominated. Hence the argument that the first chief minister of the state should be a tribal will not carry conviction with a majority of the people. And, more important, splits in the JMM have, over the years, sapped the vitals of the party. Soren’s own image has suffered a dent because of the JMM bribery case and another one relating to the mysterious disappearance of his secretary. He might have been a mass leader in the mould of Olympian Jaipal Singh at one time, but today he is a caricature of his formerself. The JMM has also to contend with the emergence of the BJP, which is now the preeminent party in the region enjoying the support of a majority of the tribals.

Since the names making the rounds in the BJP for the chief ministership are all tribal, what is certain is that the first chief minister of Jharkhand will be a tribal. Nobody will grudge this fact when in a democracy it’s the will of the majority that will prevail. Nonetheless, the argument advanced by the JMM and conceded by the BJP that Jharkhand should have a tribal chief minister is definitely flawed. What the new state needs is an effective leader who can put the fledgling state on a solid foundation. It is immaterial whether such a leader is a tribal or a non-tribal so long as he commands the support of the people. While the tribals will be able to relate better to a chief minister who has risen from among their ranks, they would under no circumstances like a nondescript tribal, who does not inspire confidence, in the position of chief minister. After all an inefficient or corrupt tribal official is no substitute for an honest, impartial official, whatever his caste background may be. Tribal Bihar knowsonly too well how corrupt some of their own leaders are. Incidentally, some of the best officials working in tribal areas are not tribals themselves. Yet, political parties have never summoned up courage to appoint non-Dalits in charge of Dalit welfare departments or non-tribals in charge of tribal welfare.

That the JMM is fishing in troubled water is apparent from the tug of war in the BJP between two of its tribal leaders. The recent meeting the party organised to gauge the mood among the legislators from the Jharkhand area did not show it in a good light. If these trends are any indication, the decision to choose the leader may be left to the party’s central leadership — a practice that has become inherent to the BJP’s functioning now. This despite the fact that the leadership did not crown itself with glory when it sent Ram Prakash Gupta to Lucknow as chief minister only to replace him later with another Central nominee. If only political parties had left the choice of leader to their legislature parties themselves, such demands would not have arisen.