New Delhi, Aug. 18: The village where Shibu Soren launched his movement against " dikus" or outsiders, lost its only bank branch more than two decades ago.
Now a man from a " diku" family of the village of Maniadih, who rose to become an MP of Soren's Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to restore the branch.
Rajya Sabha MP Sanjiv Kumar wrote to Modi yesterday asking him to take a reality check on the points he raised in his Independence Day speech.
Taking him up on financial inclusion, the MP wrote, "...my village till the mid-nineties was 'financially included' with a branch of Bank of India; however, on the pretext of security, the lone bank serving thousands of poor villagers, mainly comprising tribals, was shut down."
Kumar, a lawyer by profession, added that villagers had become victims of unscrupulous chit fund operators as the nearest bank was now 12km away.
Maniadih in Tundi block of Dhanbad district was a Maoist stronghold and the village was attacked in 2010.
Kumar's family was once targeted for alleged usury by Soren in the 1970s. However, they soon switched to his party and their home became a base for the JMM.
Kumar thanked the Prime Minister for his announcements of rural electrification and his Rs 6,000crore package for mining areas. He also asked him to introduce "exemplary punishment" for corruption.
"The State of Jharkhand which I belong to is a classic case where corruption has been nurtured, promoted and institutionalised by... government officials, police... local CBI, public sector personnel particularly in the coal industry."
Kumar, who practices both in Delhi High Court and Supreme Court, has defended Soren in the JMM bribery, Chirudih massacre and Shashi Nath Jha murder cases. Soren was acquitted in all of them.
The bribery case of Janata Dal and JMM MPs accepting money in 1993 to back the P.V. Narasimha Rao government was dismissed by court as the Constitution provided immunity to MPs from liability for acts related to voting in Parliament.
