A political confrontation, of late, seems to have emerged in the district of Mayurbhanj over the rise in prices of Sabai grass and Sal leaves, with BJD, JMM and BJP locking horns over the issue.
While the BJD and the JMM blame the BJP for imposing GST on these materials leading to rise in their prices, the latter has held the BJD squarely responsible for this, as it is “extracting heavy royalty” from the two items.
While the BJD and the JMM have already held demonstrations over the issue, demanding GST withdrawal, the saffron party is gearing up for a massive district level stir to demand royalty withdrawal. Thus, the battle line is now clearly drawn between a national party and the two regional political players over this sensitive issue of the district. The Congress, however, is yet to emerge in the picture.
While the BJD’s youth wing held a meeting and burnt the effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Tuesday on this issue, the JMM resorted to road blockades for this on Thursday. The agitators, in both the cases, strongly demanded withdrawal of GST from the forest produces to bring relief to the poor farmers and tribals of the district. The BJP, on the other hand, in its preparatory meeting held here on Sunday, decided to launch a full scale agitation throughout the district to demand a total withdrawal of the State Government’s royalty and expose the BJD.
Thus, the game of mud-slinging and blaming each other, allegations and counter-allegations, attacks and counter-attacks, and strikes and counter-strikes, at the moment, are going on unabated, providing no real relief to the poor, affected people dealing in the Sal leaf and Sabai grass in the district. Therefore, how these impact the turn of political events in the days to come and how Governments react to them will be quite interesting to watch.