RANCHI: After demanding the ‘Bharat Ratna’ for ‘Dishom Guru’ Shibu Soren, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) is now pressing for him to be accorded the status of ‘Father of the State’.
According to JMM spokesperson Manoj Pandey, he met Chief Minister Hemant Soren at the Jharkhand Assembly session on Tuesday and handed over a letter to him.
“The letter demands that the late JMM founding patron Shibu Soren be given the status of the ‘Father of the State’ of Jharkhand,” said Pandey. “Just as Mahatma Gandhi has been given the status of Father of the Nation, Shibu Soren, who played an important role in the Jharkhand movement and state formation, should get the honour of the ‘Father of the State’,” he added.
The JMM spokesperson also demanded that Shibu Soren’s picture be displayed in all government offices in the state so that the new generation can draw inspiration from his contribution and struggle.
Talking to media persons at the JMM office, Pandey said that this step is necessary to strengthen the identity of Jharkhand and will make the people of the state feel proud.
Notably, Shibu Soren played a significant role in spearheading the campaign for a separate Jharkhand state. He launched a movement for a separate state and dedicated his entire political career to the cause. It is due to his hard work and campaign that a separate Jharkhand state was carved out of Bihar in the year 2000.
After the formation of the state, he also served as the Chief Minister of Jharkhand three times. He founded the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and was serving as the founding patron of the party.
He was also elected as a Lok Sabha MP seven times and became the Union Coal Minister in the Manmohan Singh government in 2004.
Shibu Soren passed away early in the morning on 4 August this year. He breathed his last at Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, where he had been admitted after a sudden deterioration of his health condition. He had a kidney infection and was also detected with bronchitis, which allegedly led to his death.