The Opposition BJP on Monday tried to corner the ruling government led by the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) in the ongoing winter session of the Jharkhand Assembly over the Income Tax (I-T) Department’s raids on premises linked to Congress Rajya Sabha MP Dhiraj Sahu. The JMM and the Congress are in an alliance in the State.
The BJP asked Chief Minister Hemant Soren to clear his stand on the raids in which over ₹350 crore has been unearthed. BJP MLAs held placards in protest against the government. Amidst the continuous pandemonium, Speaker Rabindra Nath Mahto adjourned the House for the day.
Before Assembly proceedings began, BJP MLAs questioned the State government’s silence over the recovery of large sums of cash. The Opposition party also sought to know why Mr. Soren was continuously “skipping” the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) summons to him in a land scam case.
It should be clarified whose money had been recovered from Mr. Sahu’s house, the BJP’s chief whip Biranchi Narayan said, and whether it was Mr. Soren’s money or the Congress party’s money allegedly generated through corruption.
Minister Champai Soren hit back at the Opposition and said that the I-T Department was a “constitutional body of the Government of India” carrying out its investigation, and the State government had no role in the issue. He also said that the Opposition was raising baseless issues that had “nothing to do with the State government”.
Independent MLA Saryu Rai, on other hand, wanted the I-T Department to explain the raids and the money recovered. Mr. Rai said the issue should be raised in the Lok Sabha and not in the Jharkhand Assembly.
As soon as Question Hour began, BJP MLAs entered the Well of the House protesting loudly. The Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly Amar Bauri said that Jharkhand was “being defamed because of the Chief Minister”.
“A situation of Constitutional crisis has arisen in the State. The Chief Minister himself is ignoring the summons of the agency [the ED], which is not right. The CM has been saying that he is ready for every situation. Then why is running away from the ED’s summons? He should resign now,” Mr. Bauri said.
Mr. Bauri further said that Mr. Sahu was a Rajya Sabha MP of the Congress party and the issue of recovery of hundreds of crores of rupees in cash from his premises needed to be discussed because he was a resident of Jharkhand and “because of him, Jharkhand has got a bad name”. He also alleged that the recovered money had been “looted from water, forest and land”.
State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Alamgir Alam said that the questions should not be directed at the Chief Minister in the House, and that the CM was “also responding to the ED”.
Amid the ruckus, Finance Minister Rameshwar Oraon presented the State’s second supplementary budget of ₹8111.75 crore.
