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Naxalites jump on the Jharkhand bandwagon

The over five-decade-old movement for a separate Jharkhand state took a significant turn today with a few extremist outfits deciding to openly take up the issue.

Addressing the media, leaders of the All-India Peoples Resistance Forum and the Jharkhand Mazdoor Kisan Sangrami Parishad, the two mass organisations affiliated to the outlawed Peoples War, came in support of the region's demand of statehood.

They also decided to launch a people's movement along with the Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninst's Nai Pahel faction of Shiya Sharan Sharma and the Hul Jharkhand Kranti Dal against the alleged betrayal of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre and the past Congress governments.

The four organisations were of the opinion that Jharkhand would not be realised till people of the state remained united against those who had been depriving them of their right. For a long time, these organisations favoured a greater Jharkhand state comprising of 26 districts carved out of Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa.

For Naxalite outfits militancy was the only option left for the early formation of the new state, they alleged.

AIPRF joint secretary Arjun Prasad Singh said the forum, which is meeting in Delhi early next week, would initiate steps to build pressure on the Centre.

He said the programmes would be taken up with active support of the other constituents of the Committee for the Co ordination Nationalities and Democratic Movements comprising All-Party Hurriyat Conference of Jammu and Kashmir and extreme Left outfits like the Hul Jharkhand Kranti Dal, the Jharkhand Mazdoor Kisan Sangrami Parishad and the Jharkhand Liberation Forum.

Hul Jharkhand Kranti Dal leader Sambhu Mahato and Jharkhand Mazdoor Kisan Sangrami Parishad activist Delip Kumar said they would soon launch a massive drive in the area to mobilise people for seeking an explanation from the sitting representatives to the Lok Sabha and state legislature for their alleged failure to realise the region's popular demand of statehood.

They charged the BJP with having ''betrayed'' the people's cause and accused the Congress of ''double speak'' on Jharkhand and called upon the people to expose the two political parties at all levels and isolate their leaders in Jharkhand.

Meanwhile, a delegation of the Vananchal committee of the BJP would leave for Delhi tomorrow to urge the government to table the legislation seeking the creation of Jharkhand in the ongoing session of Parliament.

Vananchal committee spokesman Sayendra Kumar Mallick in a statement today said the delegation would meet party national president Kushabhau Thakre, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani to demand the creation of Vananchal in this session.

UNI

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