The Pioneer is furiously asking in today’s editorial if the incidents of the past two weeks in Jharkhand and Bihar do not remind one of 1975 and Indira Gandhi’s shenanigans during emergency?
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I am not sure if they do and frankly, I don’t give a damn. Why? Well imposition of emergency lead to a mass movement against Indira Gandhi and her coterie. It was a real mass grass roots movement with people from all walks of life participating in it. But when you consider the fact that leaders like Lalu Prasad Yadav are the by products of JP movement you do not feel very hopeful, do you? So even if what is going is similar to the emergency in 1975 and even if it leads to another mass movement against the current Congress government-what are the alternatives? Frankly speaking-barring a few leaders I do not find BJP to be any different than Congress.
So now Shibu Soren has been forced to resign and Arjun Munda will be sworn in as Chief Minister of Jharkhand. But who was the winner? Not the people of Jharkhand. Yes there will be huge parties and dances to the rhythm of drumbeats at the party office of Munda-but I doubt anyone else in Jharkhand or for that matter in the country is feeling that it will make any difference on the ground.