New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday (February 1) questioned the delay in swearing in Champai Soren as the new Jharkhand chief minister after Hemant Soren stepped down on Wednesday ahead of his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with an alleged land scam.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that while in neighbouring Bihar, Nitish Kumar was sworn in within hours of ending the alliance between the Janata Dal (United) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal, and the formation of a new alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Jharkhand governor C.P. Radhakrishnan is yet to act on the proposal by Champai Soren to form the government in the state.
“Had Hemant Soren joined the NDA there would have been a different scene. He would have been washed through BJP’s washing machine. BJP has established the world’s most renowned university on an all-India basis which gives only PhDs and post doctorates on one theme alone – on how to topple elected governments, how to convert elected majorities to minorities, how to encourage defections, how to create inducements.
“The BJP has created an authoritarian, absolutist and autocratic system in the world’s largest democracy. I want to ask a fundamental constitutional legal question for which we have only received stunning silence for the last 18-odd hours. Yesterday in the Jharkhand assembly, where the whole world knows that the figures are roughly 47 or 48 majority and roughly 33 or 32 opposition. After the honourable chief minister had submitted his resignation to the governor and a new chief minister with the numbers known was proposed, why has the governor been paralysed into inaction for the last 18 hours?”
Singhvi said that while in Bihar, Nitish Kumar was sworn in within hours, in Jharkhand there has been “silence” from the governor.
“Hardly a week ago in neighbouring Bihar where the borders touch, how quickly did the governor swear-in honourable Mr Paltu Kumar for the ninth time. How much time did it take? A few seconds a few minutes versus 18 hours till today as we speak? What kind of Einstein’s formula arithmetic is the governor trying to apply given to him from the self-evident fact given to him in writing with signatures. 48 versus 32 or 47 versus 33? What is the explanation for this delay? Are you waiting for instructions from the prime minister and the home minister’s office? Or are you waiting for every possible way to get MLAs to change sides and do horse trading? Because this is your vision of New India of Amrit Kal? Are you waiting to impose President’s rule to remove a democratically elected government?”
After Soren tendered his resignation to the Jharkhand governor on Wednesday night, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) announced senior party leader and the state’s transport minister, Champai Soren, as leader of the JMM’s legislative party and said that he is set to replace Hemant Soren as chief minister.
The ruling coalition led by the JMM enjoys a majority of 49 legislators in the 81-member assembly, including 29 from the JMM, 16 from the Congress, one from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), one from the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation (CPI(ML)L) and one from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
All legislators are reportedly unanimous in choosing Champai Soren to replace Hemant Soren.
Hemant’s arrest has been criticised by the opposition INDIA alliance which has accused the BJP government of using probe agencies against opposition parties and becoming “courtiers in the court of the BJP”.
Several tribal rights organisations in Jharkhand have also announced a ‘Jharkhand Bandh’ on Thursday.