In a political masterstroke that will benefit all the three major constituents of Jharkhand’s coalition government, chief minister Arjun Munda has announced a scheme of lifelong monthly pension for all activists of the four-decade movement for a separate state.
Mr Munda’s announcement of pensions, essentially the next step in a process that was left unfinished by former chief minister Madhu Koda in 2008, brought cheers among several thousands of people across the state who had taken part in the prolonged movement. But critics said it was an overly populist and politically aimed move by a state government that keeps crying of inadequate central aid and has former ministers facing trials for massive corruption scams.
“Those who served over six months in jail during the statehood struggle will be given a monthly pension of `5,000, while those who served less than six months will be entitled to `3,000,” said Mr Munda, of the BJP, in the state Assembly on Thursday when the House proceedings were disrupted by MLAs of ruling allies JMM and AJSU demanding such a scheme. The CM also said the state government would provide jobs to dependants of martyrs of the Jharkhand movement.
The BJP, which has found its growth in Jharkhand stalled in recent years, now finds another feather to add to its cap along with its persistent claim that it was the BJP-led central government that created Jharkhand. The JMM, Jharkhand’s most powerful party till recently, and the small but growing AJSU would claim that their alliance in the state government made the pension scheme possible.
The Madhu Koda-led government, in which the BJP was not a part, had in August 2008 asked the statehood fighters to submit their claims. But Mr Koda’s government fell before the deadline for submitting claims expired.
Sources said the BJP was in principle averse to the pension scheme, partly because it would help mostly JMM supporters, but it later convinced itself of the obvious political mileage and succumbed to pressure from its most important allies.