In the midst of uproar over the Sate domicile policy, the State Assembly on Thursday witnessed a bitter spat between Chief Minister Raghubar Das and the leader of Opposition Hemant Soren.
It all began when the JMM legislators led by Soren were creating unruly scenes in the House on the State’s policy for Government jobs.
The Chief Minister while fully backing his Government’s domicile policy brought soon after assuming power, termed the protests by the JMM a sign of frustration.
He also placed corroborating figures about the appointments done so far under the new policy.
The CM was furious in his comments since the main Opposition party in the Assembly, i.e. JMM, has been proactively raising the issue that ate up most of the proceedings of this Session as well as the previous ones, demanding it to be recalled. When the JMM legislators, including its leader Hemant Soren persisted on Friday also which happened to be the ultimate day of the Winter Session, the CM rose to his seat in anger.
“States which were separated alongwith Jharkhand like Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh enacted their domicile policies way back in 2001. It was my Government which brought it after coming into power. For the last three days JMM is disrupting the House. The party is misguiding the tribals since its formation 47 years ago. Thousands of unemployed youths have got jobs, thanks to the policy and now no one is left to bear JMM flags and this is pricking you,” said the visibly upset CM.
He also claimed that over 95 per cent of those who got jobs in the State after the policy came into force belong to Jharkhand. later, an official figure was also circulated to the media suggesting out of total 25,787 jobs given in different Departments through JSSC, 24,656 belong to the State. Also, all 32,147 employed on contract are the locals.
The CM went on attacking the JMM citing a resent controversy shrouded around organsing a kissing competition by one of its MlAs. “They are out to destroy tribal customs and culture by organasing a kissing competition. The JMM wants to inject western culture here. This kind of politics is not going to succeed in Jharkhand and people would wipe out this kind of parties and politics from here,” said Das.
However, the exchange of words and heat of the moment also saw allegations and counter-allegations between the Government and the Opposition. Hemant Soren during the second half claimed that the CM during his remark had used some un-parliamentary words.
“He said, ‘**** mirchi lag rahi hai’IJ This is against the ethics. Now, there is no point expunging it from the proceeding since it is being widely circulated in the social media,” alleged Soren. JVM Pradeep Yadav joined him and sought apology from the CM, if the remark was made indeed.
Speaker Dinesh Oroan intervened to express pain over the turn of events and said that anything can be said on this only after a probe. “I can say anything only after looking into the recording and the proceedings. If there is something objectionable, then it would get automatically removed,” ruled the Speaker prompting the JMM members to stage a walkout and organise protest outside the Assembly.
later, the BJP went on defending the CM quoting him differently. “CM said, ‘sare ko mirchi lag rahi hai’ and not what the JMM is describing,” said party spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo.