From opportunistic sleeping escapades to admonishing overtures to get what he was initially promised with; Guruji is running from pillar to post to don the political captaincy of Jharkhand just like an insecure lover’s last ditch to marry his princess. After all, in the unforgiving uncertainties of growing age and politics, one doesn’t dare to wait till tomorrow. But, why is Guruji being singled out? Jharkhand has been a breeding ground for politically ambitious souls. The contenders from Bollywood, Bureaucracy, Corporate and Underworld may look like daydreamers, but all their hopes to make it big, surely count on the successful logics from the Jharkhandi past. Great things happen here by fluke and, the Jharkhandi fluke repeats itself.
It is not only the ‘ignited minds’ of JMM which aim to bite more than they can chew; the so called disciplined political outfit BJP hosts many Gurujis. The race has begun to find a star that will cut Suman Mahato’s dream run short. And, Jamshedpur is again the laboratory, which initiated the real apolitical mix into Jharkhandi political arena through examples of Nitish Bharadwaj (the Sri Krishna of the Mahabharata fame) and Rushi Modi (Ex. MD Tata Steel).
For the BJP ticket, the names which are making the rounds include Amitabh Chaudhary, Prabhat Sinha and Sadhu Mahato. With aspirations to make an entry to the highest podium of democracy, do these gentlemen really profess any credentials to support their candidature in terms of understanding the plight of the masses, political pedigree and knowledge of ground realities? So, it is imperative to examine their own raison d’être to envisage a candidature for themselves. Mr. Chaudhary banks on his self-declared outstanding tenure as SP of Jamshedpur. Mr. Sinha assumes that he was the only General Manager of Tata Steel with a difference, and Mr. Mahato thinks he earns enough credits because of his surname and the ideological shift he made from Congress to BJP in the eleventh hour to grab the party ticket.
A low down on their activities in the recent past offers the reality bites. The last professional achievement for Mr. Chaudhari was Surendra Bangaali- the dreaded criminal around 11 years back. After that, it has been allegations of blackmailing of tickets in the ODI between India and England, and falling out with his own Chief Secretary not for issues related to the welfare of the state, but for the impending threat Mr. P.P. Sharma was becoming to his duty free run with the JCA (Jharkhand Cricket Association) crown. The inordinate delay in his allegations against the Chief Secretary and the timing, do smell rat. The manhandling of a senior judge by his wife’s bodyguards only added value to his dubious portfolio. Discussing Prabhat Sinha makes one argue his claim to fame. People know him as the man who engineered an otherwise unknown Parimal Nathwani’s election to Rajya Sabha. He enjoys a far too superior track record as power broker for Nathwani and for the Reliance Empire than his performance as General Manager with Tata Steel and for the people of Jamshedpur. For Mr. Mahato, scores of criminal charges against him make him another of those politicians who think, only a judicial conviction can question their morality. Inner voices and public opinion are all Greek to them.
For any Jharkhandi, who is not living on either Mars or Venus for the last one year; this self promoted group of ‘A few good men’ reminds one of unadulterated opportunism to cash in on the awfully underperforming Suman Mahato to build their own political castle. So, after decades of toiling and crisscrossing through the geographies of the tribal land; Guruji’s gestures are nowhere farfetched by the traditional stretch of political imagination. Unlike his other apolitical counterparts he has decades of hardship, humiliations, and methodical fights through ground zero to his credit. If this troika can dream of Delhi, Guruji deserves to aim high. We may ridicule him, but let’s not ridicule his ambitions. Yeh dil maange more!
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