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| Soren has caused ripples in India's establishment | | |
NEW DELHI, DEC 7
Disgraced Shibu Soren is the highest-ranking politician to be found hitting his head against the wall in Delhi's Tihar Jail. Convicted last week, Soren was sentenced on Tuesday for conspiring 12 years ago to kidnap, sodomize and murder his former personal assistant, who allegedly knew the ex-minister had taken a bribe and was using the information to blackmail him.
In many countries, a government minister standing trial for murder would be a scandal at the very least. But the only reason that the case of former coal minister, Shibu Soren, has caused ripples in India's establishment, making him stand out from the remarkable rogues gallery of bandits, racketeers and murderers who have graced India's halls of power, is that he had the misfortune of actually being convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
Soren's story may read like a tawdry novel, but it is indicative of a problem besetting the political system in a country still deeply divided by class, caste, religion and wealth. Most of the criminals who make it in Indian politics are seen by their supporters as popular leaders, fighting for the causes of smaller ethnic minorities and low-caste Hindus, groups that have long faced discrimination. It also helps that Indian law only bars a person from running for office once indicted by a court, which often happens years, sometimes even decades, after an arrest.
In Uttar Pradesh, 92 current members of the 403-member state assembly have police charges lodged against them. One lawmaker, Ramakant Yadav, won election while in jail. His brother, Umakant Yadav, a member of Parliament, has been charged with murder.
Soren, 62, is from the eastern state of Jharkhand where his people, the impoverished indigenous forest-dwelling tribespeople known as Adivasis, occupy the lowest rungs of India's complex social ladder. He rose to power championing the rights of this oppressed minority, making his name in the 1960s by leading a campaign to keep mining companies from tearing down forests to build coal mines and free his fellow tribespeople from landlords and moneylenders.
Earning himself the nickname "Jungle Leader," he was particularly harsh with the money lenders. In his eastern Indian turf, locals claim with pride that he killed several of them. He has also been indicted for his alleged role in the 1975 mob killings of 11 people in a Muslim village--part of a campaign to gain political influence for tribal people in eastern India. It succeeded in 2000 with the creation of a new state, Jharkhand, where tribals are a majority.
He built on that success to become Union coal minister-- first in 2004 and then again in 2006, staying on the job throughout the trial and only resigning at the insistence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after his conviction last week. Under Indian law, he could have kept the job until a court ruled on his appeal. After his conviction, the Bharatiya Janata Party was quick to accuse the government of corruption. But they quickly quieted down when one of their own lawmakers, former cricket star Navjot Singh Sidhu, was convicted of manslaughter in a road rage case a few days later. He received a three-year suspended sentence Wednesday. |
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