
Ranchi, Jan. 2: Incensed and embarrassed at the personal insult to him during the Kharsawan protest yesterday, chief minister Raghubar Das has formed a high-level team of chief secretary Rajbala Verma, DGP D.K. Pandey and home secretary S.K.G. Rahate for an on-the-spot probe into security lapses that made the incident possible.
Yesterday, a section of 5,000 tribals chanted CM wapas jao, waved black flags and aimed shoes at Das when he went to Shaheed Sthal, Kharsawan, to pay homage to martyrs. Protests forced Das to leave in 15 minutes. Tribal leaders said they protested against Das for having amended Chotanagpur and Santhal Pargana tenancy Acts. Later, at the same spot yesterday, JMM supremo Shibu Soren called tenancy Acts the raksha kawaj of tribals and promised his party's stir against amendments to go on.
This evening, an FIR against nine named and around 300 unnamed persons was lodged. "The FIR has Sections 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharging his duty), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapons), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and other relevant sections of IPC," said SDPO Seraikela Sumit Kumar under whom Kharsawan thana falls, but did not reveal the identity of the named persons.
But, the timing - martyrs' homage - and venue of the protest - Kharsawan, formerly the stronghold of Arjun Munda, former chief minister and Das's alleged rival within the BJP, and now a JMM turf with MLA Dashrath Gagrai - has lent the Kharsawan protest a strong political colour.
Sources at the chief minister's residence said on reaching Ranchi last evening, he spoke to BJP national president Amit Shah and other top BJP and RSS names on the situation.
If sources are to be believed, Das told the central BJP leadership that his rivals within and outside the party were misguiding local sentiments and such incidents dampened the morale of the government and BJP workers.
The chief minister is understood to have aired his suspicions against his political rivals, including BJP leader Munda. Das is likely to go to Delhi tomorrow to personally speak to the BJP's central leadership.
Last year Munda and Das had visited Shaheed Sthal together. This year, they did not.
Though there is no proof yet to suggest Munda's hand, he is a tribal leader who openly aired his difference of opinion with Das over tenancy Act amendments, which pave the way for specific non-agricultural projects on agrarian land that tribals see as a threat.
Though Das was not available for comments, Munda rubbished the insinuations. "Rubbish. How a protest like this help me? I reached Shaheed Sthal at 9am and stayed for 45 minutes. I might have waited (for the CM, who reached around 11.30am) but no one told me about the CM's schedules. It is true tribals are upset with amendments and the CM should reach out to them. But I can't think of practising below-the-belt politics," he said.