Chairman of Jharkhand Andolankari Identification Commission Justice (Rtd) Vikramaditya Prasad has described the ongoing debate over tribal, non-tribal status of the next Chief Minister as irrelevant, adding one should not raise a question over tribal or non-tribal status for the top job in the State.
"Anybody who pitches himself for the Chief Minister's post should come as a messiah for tribals. Any leader who has a heart and feeling for the people of the State would be an ideal person for the top job," he told The Pioneer in an interview. Prasad was reacting to the demand of some senior BJP leaders for discontinuing the practice of having a tribal Chief Minister. So far, every political party in Jharkhand, a State carved out of Bihar in November 2000, has followed an unwritten rule of naming only a tribal as the CM. "It would also be wrong to say that a non-tribal would not do justice with the tribals. Even some British Viceroys with a heart for Indians had undertaken certain reforms in India. But he should feel the problems being faced by the people, especially the original inhabitants of Jharkhand. He should know the purpose for which Jharkhand was formed. He should guarantee the tribals' rights over land and forests," Prasad, who has recently authored a Hindi novel, The Undaunted, Nirbhaya, said.
The novel is a simple story of a housewife as to how she bounces back to regular life with aplomb and determination even after suffering the most heinous crime on her person, the gang rape. Prasad, who has studied various aspects of the Jharkhand movement in order to do justice with the job to identify the "andolankaris" for a separate state, said that those who have settled here and made Jharkhand their home should have soft corner for the original inhabitants.
Despite infrastructural hiccups, the Commission, set up on June 1, 2012 by then Arjun Munda Government, has identified around 4,000 movement activists so far out of around 38,000 applications it has received so far. "And the majority of the identified activists are tribals and Mahtos," he added.
"The Jharkhand movement was basically a fight for ‘jungle’ and ‘jameen’. It could not be analysed in isolation. We have to go back to history of Hul kranti and the movement launched by Birsa Munda among various tribal revolutions," he pointed out. Prasad said that the Britishers had enacted Chotanagpur Tenancy Act soon after death of Birsa Munda. "Though there is still dispute over the reason behind his death, the Britishers very well realised that the demand for which Birsa Munda, also a great social reformer, had launched his movement was not unjust," he added. "So, the movement for a separate State of Jharkhand had a long history and purpose. It was inevitable to happen," Prasad, who has been named recently by the State Government to probe into job bunglings at Birsa Agriculture University (BAU).
"But then, it is a complex problem to identify a bonafide activist because the then Bihar government seldom lodged a case recognising the Jharkhand movement. The agitationists were mostly booked under various criminal offences," he pointed out. "So, we have to study various small agitations like ones against sahukars (money lenders), dhankatti (paddy harvesting) agitation etc in a larger context. Then, we get the papers submitted by a prospective activist with the original papers with the police stations. We match their claim with the press reports. Now, the State Government has nominated an ADM rank officer in every district to verify the genuineness of an activist," he added. "We are trying to cover all those agitations launched against forces inimical to the concept of Jharkhand to identify the movement activists," he said.