Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of using a Government programme for election campaigning, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) has decided to knock the door of the Election Commission of India (ECI) and highlight the “political undertone” of the grand ceremonies attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Ranchi on Thursday.
Addressing media persons at his residence in Ranchi on Friday, JMM Executive President Hemant Soren said that several blatant violations of constitutional ethics were evident during the Prime Minister’s event on Thursday. “The BJP sees every event, including Government ceremonies, as a platform for election campaigning. Several protocols were violated yesterday (Thursday). We will take up this matter with the ECI,” he said.
Soren also expressed ire over the alleged misconduct towards eminent people holding important designations in the State during the PM’s event. “Why was our first lady, the Governor of Jharkhand Droupadi Murmu, not even invited to address the event? Many people holding important positions in the Assembly were not even invited to attend its inaugural ceremony,” he said.
Soren, who happens to be the Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly, said that he did not receive any formal invitation for the inaugural ceremony of the new Vidhan Sabha building on Thursday. “The JMM has decided to boycott the Special Session of the Assembly today (Friday) as a mark of protest against the misrule,” said Soren.
Soren highlighted that tweets from many Deputy Commissioners in Jharkhand suggested that they had forgotten the difference between the Government and the party in power. “The DCs are openly expressing their political patronage on social media. It seems many of them are using their official Twitter handles to tweet about the BJP’s work,” he said.
Many Deputy Commissioners had on Thursday tweeted about the various welfare works of the Government and some had used hash tags such as “Modi with Jharkhand”. Some DCs had also attributed the success of many schemes to Chief Minister Raghubar Das’ leadership skills in tweets from official Twitter handles, JMM said, claiming that the BJP was gradually trying to hijack the bureaucracy.
Soren, a former Chief Minister, pointed at flaws in the Government schemes launched on Thursday by Modi. He also claimed that the newly-inaugurated Vidhan Sabha building was incomplete and inaugurated in haste. “Many families evicted for construction of the Multi Modal Terminal in Sahibganj are yet to get their compensation, forget rehabilitation,” said Soren, adding that the facility in Sahibganj will cause an increase in crime and further oppress the tribal population of Jharkhand.
He came down heavily on the NDA-led Centre on Friday and flayed the way in which Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act 2019 was implemented. “The Government has allowed police to treat common people as terrorists and rapists. It has allowed the police to treat traffic rule violator like seasoned criminals,” Soren said.