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Time of India
05-08-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Shibu Soren - A champion of tribal rights and architect of Jharkhand politics
1 2 With the demise of Shibu Soren, affectionately called as "Guruji", India's political landscape has lost one of its most iconic figures. Soren, 81, died at a New Delhi hospital after battling a kidney ailment for over a month. His son and Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren and other family members were present by his bedside when the three-time former CM passed away. Born on January 11, 1944, at Nemra village, then part of undivided Bihar's Hazaribag district, Shibu, also known as "Dishom Guru", dedicated his life championing the rights of the poor and marginalised, particularly the tribal communities of Jharkhand. His entry into politics was marked by a personal tragedy. His father was killed by moneylenders. This incident ignited a lifelong battle against exploitation and injustice. At 18, he established the Santhal Navyuvak Sangh and, in the late 1960s, founded an ashram in Dhanbad's Tundi. Shibu became a significant adversary to moneylenders and landlords who exploited the tribals. He addressed various socio-political issues affecting the poor, particularly those from scheduled tribes, scheduled castes, and backward classes. He also opposed "Dikus (outsiders)" and, on January 23, 1975, allegedly led a mob of tribal people to Chirudih village in Jamtara district where 11 people were killed. Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Why is everyone rushing to get their hands on this new air cooler? News of the Discovery Undo by Taboola by Taboola He was made an accused in the case, but was later acquitted by a Jamtara district court due to lack of evidence. The murder case forced him to go underground for a brief period. He returned to politics, again. In 1972, Shibu joined forces with A K Roy, Binod Bihari Mahato, and others to form Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, where he served as a general secretary. He was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in 1980 as an Independent candidate from Dumka constituency in Santhal Parganas. In 1986, he became JMM president, a position he held for 39 years until April 15, 2025, when he was succeeded by his son, Hemant Soren, the present chief minister of Jharkhand. Shibu contested the Lok Sabha election from Dumka 11 times, winning eight elections in 1980, 1989, 1991, 1996, the 2002 by-poll, 2004, 2009, and 2014. He lost three times in 1984, 1998, and 2019, the latest to BJP's Sunil Soren. Before his 1980 Lok Sabha victory, he unsuccessfully ran for the Bihar Vidhan Sabha from Tundi in 1977. His popularity took a slight hit after he, along with three other MPs, was charged with taking bribes to vote in favour of the Congress govt led by P V Narasimha Rao in 1992, leading to his imprisonment. But he always remained a champion for tribal rights and enjoyed immense popularity. In 2004, he became the coal minister in the Manmohan Singh govt, but resigned in July the same year after a warrant related to the Chirudih massacre was issued against him. Shibu rejoined the central cabinet in Oct 2004 but left in March 2005 to become the chief minister of Jharkhand. But he failed to prove his majority in the assembly and had to step down. He returned to the central cabinet in 2006 but left again in October after being convicted and sentenced to life for murdering his personal secretary, Shashinath Jha. Delhi high court acquitted him in 2007, and he was also cleared in the Chirudih case for lack of evidence. Shibu served as the chief minister of Jharkhand three times -- first for 10 days in 2005, second from Aug 27, 2008, to Jan 19, 2009, and third from Dec 30, 2009, to June 1, 2010, during which he served for 153 days before the BJP withdrew support. A member of the Rajya Sabha, Shibu also played a vital role in the creation of Jharkhand. He broke his political ties with RJD president Lalu Prasad after the latter opposed the move.
Time of India
04-08-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
TRIBAL MESSIAH WITH ‘MAGICAL' POWERS
1 2 Among tribal people, mainly Santhals, he was a cult figure with 'magical' powers. During the 70s, when tribals were subjected to ruthless exploitation by greedy moneylenders and landlords, he emerged like a messiah for them. He started attacking moneylenders and forcibly started harvesting crops on lands of tribals usurped by "Dikus (outsiders)". The saviour of tribals made them realize that their exploiters were not invincible. The Shibu juggernaut rolled on in Jharkhand and the tribals started believing that their saviour had some supernatural powers and was omnipresent. "Guruji is addressing a rally in Dumka today and he is also addressing rallies at Palajori, Kathikund, Litti Para and other places at the same time... Santhals from rural areas used to say during Jharkhand Diwas rallies on February 2 in Dumka way back in 70s and early 80s. He used to start his address around 7-8pm and continued it till the wee hours of the morning. The tribals listened to his fiery speeches throughout the night," Godai Swarnkar, an old-timer, said. Guruji, as JMM supremo Shibu Soren is affectionately called, had acquired an image like Phantom, the ghost who walks. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Best SIP Plans for NRIs in Netherlands – Get ₹2L Monthly Pension | Invest ₹18K PB Learn More Undo He had himself admitted this once while talking to this reporter. "During my fight against moneylenders, several cases were lodged against me and police had launched massive hunt for me. Suraj and I used to hide in remote villages. I had a motorcycle then and Suraj was my constant companion. When we used to enter villages in the dead of night, people used to think two ghosts had arrived," he had said. He later gifted the bike to his secretay Vinod Pandey. However, he retained his jeep he had used during Jharkhand movement. Suraj Mandal. then a JMM leader who later became a JMM MP, was Shibu's right-hand man during those days. Later, he parted ways with Shibu and slowly faded into oblivion. Soren's life witnessed vicissitudes of fortunes. JMM bribery case, Shashikant Jha murder case, Chirudih massacre case kept haunting him for a long time. But his popularity among tribals remained undiminished. The tribal hero led a spartan lifestyle. He was a teetotaller and a strict vegetarian. "I love sleeping on the floor," he had once said. When asked how he maintains such a mop of wavy hair and a flowing beard, he had said: "I use 'multani mitti' and you people use shampoo. Here lies the difference." He even suggested this reporter to go to nearby Sainthia in West Bengal. "There is a mound of multani mitti just outside Sainthia. Go and collect it," he had said. Guruji had rustic sense of humour and had once made fun of death also. While going for a chopper ride to Masalia, about 40 km from Dumka, to address a poll rally during 2009 assembly polls, Vinod Pandey had suggested this reporter to accompany Guruji on chopper and interview him. Guruji had jokingly said: "The condition of this chopper is bad and it can crash on the way. I am old now and it doesn't matter if I perish in a crash. He is a young man and he should not take the risk." The autumn of the patriarch began in 1995 when his eldest son Durga Soren won the Jama assembly seat. He started calling the shots within the party. He died in 2009. After Durga's death, his younger brother Hemant Soren took over as the successor of Guruji. This led to family feud as Durga's widow Sita Soren was unhappy with Hemant's move. She later joined BJP, but lost Jama assembly polls to JMM Candidate Lois Marandi in 2024 assembly polls. Guruji slowly started to keep himself out of the limelight. On April 15, 2025, Hemant became party president, replacing Shibu. It can be said to be the end of Shibu era in JMM. But Guruji was and will remain the biggest crowd-puller for JMM in days to come. He did not actively campaigned for the party in 2024 assembly polls, but JMM flags with his familiar face and bow and arrow party symbol, kept fluttering in remote areas of the state. JMM formed government in the state later, reminding people that his charisma remained intact.
Indian Express
04-08-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Pivotal figure in Jharkhand movement, Shibu Soren had a storied career with fleeting stints in power
He had only brief stints in office as Union minister and Chief Minister because of recurrent legal troubles and coalition frictions, but Shibu Soren the politician left an indelible mark on the politics of Jharkhand as a key figure of the decades-long statehood movement that ultimately led to the carving out of the state from Bihar in 2000. Soren, popularly known as 'Guruji', passed away at 81 in Delhi Monday, but the legacy of his politics continues with his son Hemant Soren, entrenched as Jharkhand CM after a convincing victory in the Assembly elections last year. It was the only instance after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls where a party trounced the BJP in a direct fight despite the latter having a steady presence in the state. Soren, who belonged to the Santal tribe, was born on January 11, 1944, in the Nemra village of Ramgarh in the then Bihar province. He took to public life at a young age, forming the Santal Navyuvak Sangh at just 18, and fought moneylenders who lent to tribals at exorbitant rates. It was a fight fuelled by the anger at the death of his father Shobaran who was killed by moneylenders when Soren was a boy. His politics soon became one of opposition to non-tribal 'outsiders', aligning with a sentiment that had been there even before Independence, when the tribal areas of the mineral-rich Chota Nagpur plateau were part of Bihar, and regarded non-tribals as exploitative outsiders called 'Dikus'. In 1972, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) was founded on February 2 on the birthday of Birsa Munda. In 1973, Binod Bihari Mahto became president of the party, with Shibu Soren as the general secretary. It was Jaipal Singh Munda, a member of the Constituent Assembly and an Olympian hockey player, who had become the voice of a separate Jharkhand and championed tribal land rights and their 'autonomous' culture — neither Christian nor Hindu — in the Constituent Assembly. Munda was the leader of the Adivasi Mahasabha that resisted what it saw as Bihari imperialism and trounced the Congress in the tribal belt of then South Bihar in 1952, winning three Lok Sabha and 33 Assembly constituencies. The States Reorganisation Commission of the 1950s was also met throughout the region with slogans of 'Jharkhand Alag Prant (Jharkhand is a distinct state)'. When mobilisations for a Jharkhand state emerged again in the 1980s, recalls Ram Guha in India After Gandhi, 'the protests … were led by Shibu Soren, a young man with long black locks who quickly became a folk hero'. 'He organised the forest harvest of paddy in lands 'stolen' from the Adivasis by Dikus (outsiders), as well as the invasion of forest lands that they claimed as their own,' Guha writes. In September 1980, 15 Adivasis were killed in police firing in Gua, which is now in Paschimi Singhbhum district, further strengthening the movement for Jharkhand. Soren was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1980 and became president of his party in 1986. He represented JMM from Dumka in 1989, 1991, 1996 and 2004. In 1998 and 1999, however, he lost the parliamentary election. Jharkhand's formation and coalition politics In 2000, when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was Prime Minister, Bihar was bifurcated to create Jharkhand from South Bihar, bowing to the long-standing demand in the region. The states of Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand were also created simultaneously. However, given the fact that Jharkhand was not a tribal-majority state, the JMM had to rely on alliances to come to power in the state and Soren never had a long stint in power. Allegations of crime and corruption also made him appear like a run-of-the-mill politician. The JMM was part of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in 2004, and Soren joined the Manmohan Singh government as the minister of coal and mines. He had to resign within two months, as an arrest warrant was issued against him in the Chirudih case of 1975, in which 10 people, including nine Muslims, were killed in a clash between tribals and Muslims. He had to spend a month in jail. After his release on bail, he was reinducted into the Cabinet as Union Coal Minister late in 2004, as the Congress and the JMM had to contest the 2005 Jharkhand Assembly polls in alliance. On March 2, 2005, Soren became the third CM of Jharkhand after Babulal Marandi and Arjun Munda of the BJP, but his government lasted just nine days as he could not prove his majority. In January 2006, Soren returned to the UPA Cabinet, but had to resign again in November as he was held guilty in the 1994 murder of his former private secretary Shashinath Jha, a first for any Cabinet minister. The CBI alleged that Jha was abducted from Dhaula Kuan in Delhi and taken to Ranchi on May 23, 1994, where he was killed and his body buried nearby in Piska Nagri. Charging the accused, the CBI alleged that this was done because Jha knew of the reported deal between the Congress and the JMM to save the then Narasimha Rao government during the July 1993 no-confidence motion. It was a reference to the JMM bribery case that rocked the minority government of Narasimha Rao, whose administration survived the charges. Soren was, however, acquitted by the Delhi High Court on August 23, 2007, which ruled the CBI's claims unsustainable. In 2018, the Supreme Court upheld the acquittal, saying there was no evidence that the dead body exhumed was that of his private secretary as the DNA samples did not match. In 2008, Soren again became CM. But his tenure was cut short yet again, as he failed to win a January 2009 Assembly by-election. In December 2009, he took charge as Jharkhand CM for a third time, heading a JMM-BJP coalition government this time, but had to step down again after six months when the BJP withdrew support. Even as his health became indifferent and Soren gradually began to withdraw from active politics — he became JMM president for the sixth time in 2010, was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2014 and to the Rajya Sabha in 2020 — he established his son Hemant as his successor, with the JMM remaining an entrenched party in state politics. Despite the BJP trying its level best to breach Jharkhand last year — Hemant spent time in jail on corruption charges and the BJP accused the JMM of allowing Bangladeshi immigrants to acquire documents, marrying tribal girls and claiming tribal lands in the state — the JMM convincingly won the elections.
