RANCHI: Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, while counting the achievements of his government on the completion of three years in office, said that it won’t be surprising if he gets arrested by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in money laundering and stone mining cases.
Soren further added that he has been holding the lease in his name ever since he was not in politics, but as soon as the opposition parties started feeling that his government is getting stronger day by day, they started making false allegations against him.
“Ye koi ascharya ki baat thodi hai ki Hemant Soren to giraftaar kar le. Jab Shibu Soren giraftaar ho sakta hai to Hemant Soren kis khet ki muli hai. (It would not be surprising if Hemant Soren gets arrested. If Shibu Soren can be arrested then who is Hemant Soren?) When Shibu Soren was coal minister, he was made to run around the courts and when he became chief minister, it was again repeated,” said Soren.
It is bound to happen, if they don’t get into power, nothing will happen to him, he added.
According to Soren, as Adwasi-Dalits move forward, the trouble of these people will increase further. But the day is not very far away when people conspiring against them will have to face problems, he added.
Soren further added that he has been moving forward understanding the potential of Jharkhand quite well, which the opposition parties could not recognize during the last 20 years, claiming that if he remained in power for the next 10 years he will pull the state out of the underdeveloped tag.
Soren said that he does not regret holding a mining lease as he has been holding it ever since he was not in politics.
“I have been holding a mining lease ever since I was not in politics. In the meantime, I became a Rajya Sabha member, MLA, even Deputy Chief Minister and leader of the opposition, but my friends never noticed it. Now, since they know that this government is sitting so strongly that it is impossible to replace it, especially by the friends sitting in the opposition, they have started making false allegations about him,” said Soren.
But, the new trends emerging in the politics like horse trading and misuse of central agencies as a tool kit, nothing could be said, he added.
Soren said that he is neither a businessman nor represents the capitalists; rather he represents the poor, tribal and Dalit and considers current challenges as a part of the hurdle, which generally emerges if one tries to work honestly for the people.
Referring to the scrapping of the recruitment policy by the Jharkhand High Court, Soren said that his government wants that more and more adivasi-moolwasi from this state gets recruited in the State.
Whatever wrongs have been done during the last 20 years, he is trying to correct them by ensuring jobs to the local population, he added.
Soren ensured that recruitment will not be hampered in the state and he will find some way out. 2023 will be observed as the year of proper implementation for the policies framed by his government, he added.
According to Soren, there is no bitterness between the Governor and him but some of the instances, especially the statement given by him that it took him time to understand the politics of this state, compel him to think if he is being double-crossed.
“Whether he has come here to understand the politics or has come in the capacity of a Governor. I wonder whether he will do politics in future or something else.”