Jharkhand: Pre-poll hysterics over ‘love and land jihad’

The Government of India has repeatedly maintained that it has no record of undocumented Bangladeshis residing in India. In fact, it informed the Supreme Court that it was impossible to state a number. That, however, has not prevented the Union home minister Amit Shah, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, two former chief ministers Babulal Marandi and Champai Soren, and a member of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) Asha Lakra from alleging that Adivasi women in Jharkhand have been victims of ‘love and land jihad’.

Thousands of Muslims from Bangladesh, claimed Amit Shah in July, had infiltrated the Santhal Pargana region of Jharkhand, married Adivasi women and occupied land.

There is ample evidence of land alienation in the state — but the culprits are primarily the State in cahoots with the industrial lobby. Despite the Chotanagpur Tenancy (CNT) Act of 1908 and the Santhal Pargana Tenancy (SPT) Act of 1949, which restricts transfer of tribal land to non-tribals, large tracts of Adivasi land have been taken without the community’s permission. Coercion, corruption, forgery and manipulation of land records, dubious ‘deeds of donation’ and informal transactions are the routes through which tribal land has passed into the hands of non-tribals.

The BJP’s ‘love jihad’ campaign, sustained by relentless propaganda in the media, has no data to back it. Asha Lakra is the only BJP leader to have cited specific instances. While she was cagey about names, she said there were apparently eight mukhiyas, one panchayat samiti member and a zilla parishad chairperson in Sahibganj district who were ‘victims’.

The Scroll found that Lakra’s claim of these Adivasi women having married “Bangladeshi infiltrators, Rohingya Muslims” was completely false. In truth, three of the women had Adivasi husbands. The fourth, Kapra Tudu, had married Nitin Saha, a Hindu from outside the Adivasi community.

The remaining six Adivasi women panchayat leaders who were indeed married to Muslims told Scroll that there was no coercion involved — they had married out of choice. Their husbands were locals settled in the Santhal Parganas.

A field survey in Sahibganj by the Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha and the Loktantra Bachao Abhiyan also arrived at the same conclusion. Neither had they come across any Bangladeshi infiltrators, nor had the people spotted any. They confirmed large-scale violations of the SPT Act and demanded a thorough inquiry by the government. They also confirmed that the police were harassing couples on suspicion of the husbands being Bangladeshis.

Although chief minister Hemant Soren dismissed the allegations of ‘love jihad’ as baseless, pointing out that the state did not even have an international border with Bangladesh — which raises the other question of whose responsibility it is to stop infiltration — both Babulal Marandi and Champai Soren have echoed the allegations made by Shah and Dubey.

These hysterics seem likely to continue till the Assembly election, scheduled for end-December.

Soren versus Soren: a cloak-and-dagger drama

While BJP state president Babulal Marandi claims the party had sent feelers to Champai Soren after he was asked to resign by the JMM (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha), the political grapevine has a different story to tell.

When Hemant Soren stepped out of jail on 28 June, Champai Soren (who had warmed the CM’s seat for six months) did not go to receive him. This raised eyebrows. On 1 July, the Jharkhand government released full-page advertisements hailing the three new criminal laws which replaced the Indian Penal Code, the Criminal Procedure Code and the Indian Evidence Act.

The new bills rammed through Parliament were opposed by parties in the INDIA bloc and the government ads amped the unease. The Congress is believed to have alerted Hemant Soren that Champai Soren — who he had deputised as officiating chief minister before being marched off to prison by the ED — was actually planning to switch over to the BJP. This sent alarm bells ringing and Hemant Soren and the JMM moved swiftly to contain the damage.

That would explain the abrupt change of guard. On 28 June, Hemant Soren had indicated that Champai Soren would continue in office, while he would devote his time to organisation and election campaigning. Once alerted about a pre-poll rebellion, however, he curtly instructed Champai to cancel all official engagements and attend a meeting of the legislature party, where he was to publicly resign.

Champai Soren has himself narrated how insulted and humiliated he was by this turn of events. After agonising over his next move, even considering retiring from active politics, he finally decided to join the BJP.

Neither the party nor their latest recruit expected Hemant Soren to be released from prison so soon. When a single bench of the high court granted him bail, the ED promptly moved the Supreme Court with an appeal against the order. However, the high court order was so scathing, comprehensive and categorical that the Supreme Court refused to intervene. Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s carefully crafted plan thus came a cropper.

Had Champai switched to the BJP as chief minister, he might have secured the support of several JMM legislators. However, abruptly cut to size and deprived of even a ministerial berth, he has been able to persuade just one suspended JMM MLA to defect with him.

The BJP is putting up a brave front and claiming that Champai Soren joining the party is a coup of sorts. There are serious doubts, however, about how much the party would really benefit. Two other ‘leaders’, Sita Soren and Geeta Koda, who joined the BJP after defecting from the JMM and the Congress respectively, lost in the Lok Sabha election.

Champai Soren hails from the Kolhan region in Singhbhum, which elects 14 MLAs to the state assembly. Not one of these seats was won by the BJP in the last assembly election. The JMM bagged 12 seats, the Congress one, and Independent candidate Saryu Roy — who left the BJP to contest against the then chief minister Raghubar Das, defeating him to win the remaining seat.

While the BJP had hoped to wrest 8–9 seats in the region with Champai Soren leading the charge, his induction has been a damp squib. Not a single JMM legislator from the region has resigned with him and the party seems to be firmly with Hemant Soren.

In 2019, the JMM had fielded Champai Soren from Jamshedpur for the Lok Sabha election, where he lost to the BJP by a margin of over three lakh votes. While the BJP did hang on to the Jamshedpur Lok Sabha seat in 2024, its margin of victory was slimmer.

In Chaibasa, the other Lok Sabha seat, the INDIA bloc’s victory margin doubled this year. The BJP is also struggling with far too many heavyweights from the region in the party including Arjun Munda, Raghubar Das, the present governor of Odisha, Madhu Koda and his wife Geeta Koda. Internal opposition to the induction of Champai Soren — hailed as a brilliant move by Himanta Biswa Sarma — is growing.