The AJSU party, a partner of the BJP Government in the State, once again questioned on Saturday the necessity of the Ordinance being brought seeking amendments to the Santhal Pargana (SPT) and Chotanagpur Tenancy (CNT) Acts and asked the Raghubar Das Government to clear its stand on the circumstances for hurriedly piloting the legislation.
The AJSU chief maintained that such anti-tribal steps were being taken by the Government despite the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured tribals on December 15, 2014 that no one could grab their land.
“If the Government wants to destroy the documents evolved out of the sacrifices made by Birsa Munda, Sido-Kanhu, Tilka Manjhi and other freedom fighters on this 70th anniversary of Independence, how could the present generation of those martyrs tolerate this,” asked Mahto.
Questioning the Government’s move to promulgate the Ordinance just a few days before the Monsoon Session, rather than bringing it in the Assembly, Mahto also reminded the Chief Minister of his earlier commitment made to the people before the polls on January 3, 2015 in Jamshedpur that no changes would be made in the CNT and SPT Acts.
Sudesh poser to Government on CNT-SPT Ordinance. “It will be better for the Government to come forward and clear the reasons behind bringing the ordinance and the benefits of bringing changes in it,” Mahto maintained at a press conference. “If people have been questioning the benefits of bringing the Ordinance, the Government must clear that it was not so,” he said.
The AJSU chief further added that since the issue was related to the tribal culture and identity, the matter must have been discussed with the other political parties and social orgainizations of the State in a bid to build a consensus over it.
“If such an important issue, where the Government thinks that a change must be brought in, it must make the people understand first by publishing the matter in the media depicting the reasons behind bringing such changes,” said Mahto.
He said that dialogue, discussion and debate are the base and column of democracy. “If this Government tries to disrespect this established democratic culture, it will be against the decorum of democracy,” he pointed out.
“In Democracy, people sitting on margin are not coerced to accept anything. Giving importance to the voices of the poor and downtrodden is the moral responsibility of the government. This morality seems to be lacking in the working of the people sitting in the Government,” he maintained. “Being a part of this Government, it is our responsibility to warn it of the dire consequences of it…which is currently being done by the AJSU party,” added Mahto.