August 10, 2026

Is Hemant Soren's Anguish Justified?

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-05-07 14:19:46

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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

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After the controversy over Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren’s tweet where he said that Prime Minister Modi spoke to him over telephone on the Covid situation in the state but regretted and alleged that the PM said his "mann ki baat" and did not do any "kaam ki baat", one read and reread the tweet numerous times to find out why it had offended so many BJP leaders who had come out to defend the Prime Minister, but one could not find anything grossly wrong in Hemant Soren’s anguish.

The BJP leaders supporting the Prime Minister have accused Soren of not following protocol and not having the decency of not attacking the Prime Minister in these troubled times. Even if the point is accepted and Soren is guilty of that, can we deny him the right to be anguished if the PM calls him to discuss the Covid situation in the state and allegedly launches into a monologue without giving Soren the opportunity to tell him the position in the state and how he wants the Centre to help? If what Soren says is true and the Prime Minister did not make any attempt to know from Soren about the state’s Covid situation and the help it needed from the Centre, wasn’t the phone call unnecessary?

It is true as the BJP leaders have pointed out that in these troubled times, the hands of the Prime Minister must be strengthened and all political parties and leaders must come together to help the government in the war against the dreaded coronavirus. But to clap, one needs two hands. As Pratap Bhanu Mehta, otherwise a trenchant critic of the NDA government has written in the Indian Express, this is a time for national unity and the lead for that must come from the Prime Minister and the opposition must cooperate without politicizing the matter.

But if the Prime Minister calls the chief minister of a state to discuss about the Covid situation in his state and then allegedly does not give him the opportunity to explain his position, it indicates that he is not seeking cooperation but only wishing to make his views known to the states. The anguish of the chief minister is then justified. That is not the way to fight Covid and save lives. The Centre must make an earnest attempt to involve all political parties and as suggested by Mehta, draw up a national plan to fight Covid. The Prime Minister must take the lead in this regard. His government has the mandate and he has the stature to do so.