Read about people taking oath on Hindu Rashtra…BJP trying to confuse people across country: Hemant Soren

In September, the Speaker of the Jharkhand Assembly decided to allot a ‘namaaz room’ for offering prayers. This created a huge controversy, with the BJP demanding that similar places of worship for other religious communities should be built in the Assembly.

When asked about claims that his party practices “appeasement politics”, Soren said, “I was seeing a news article recently reporting that a people had taken an oath to turn the country into a Hindu Rashtra. What is this? Humne kaun se masjid bana diye namaz padhne ke liye? (Tell us, did we build any mosques for offering namaaz?)…They (BJP) are intellectuals who are confusing the general people.”

He added that the Prevention of Mob Violence and Mob Lynching Bill 2021, enacted in Jharkhand, will prevent anti-social elements from taking the law into their hands. “Mob matlab Adivasi ka mob or Hindu ka Mob or Muslim ka mob (Does a mob mean an Advisai mob, a Muslim mob or a Hindu mob)? A mob is a mob. There are no religious identities,” he said.

“A law is made to ensure that any act of wrongdoing is punished. Legislations like these can help maintain peace. The clothes that we wear, tell me if people from only one community makes them…I think the Centre should make a law (to prevent mob lynching),” Soren added.

The Jharkhand CM also said that the Centre’s move to raise women’s legal age for marriage was a “political” move.

“First it (the age of marriage for women) was 14, then it became 18 and now 21. Kahin aisa to nahi ki kal 30, 35 saal hoga (What if tomorrow the age is increased to 30 or 35?). What is the thought process behind it and how the Centre views it is a big question. There are things which keep on happening even if you don’t want to…(But) when the government recognizes live-in relationships, then what is the use of (all this)? It is a political message. I don’t want to say anything more,” he said.

In November, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha party members had protested in Jamshedpur outside the Tata plant after Tata Cummins—a 50:50 joint venture between Tata Motors Limited and Cummins Inc., USA—had decided to move its registered office to Pune. When asked what message do protests by the ruling coalition party members against the Tata group send out, especially when the state is seeking investment from industries, Soren said one needs to understand why people had joined the agitation in the first place.

He added: “…I am sending out an invitation message but Tata is hinting that it is leaving. This is the message which is going out. A generation passed to bring Coal India’s head office to Jharkhand, and the DVC, which operates in Jharkhand, is headquartered in West Bengal. And the companies which are here are leaving…”

When asked what has worked for his government in these two years, he said many new projects are being rolled out which have a firm focus on people. “There are a lot of places in Jharkhand from where the voices of people were never heard. Today, MPs, MLAs, officers and even the CM himself reaches out to them, by using bullock carts or tractors, to solve their problems.”

Soren said that he may conduct a caste-based census in Jharkhand. He also announced that a university on digital skills will be launched in the next financial year.

On being asked what his biggest regret was at the moment, he lamented the “lack” of a fruitful Centre-state relationship. “It is true that both the Centre and the state can solve problems which people face. But the scales are tipped in favour of the Centre. We can on most occasions just execute orders,” he said.