SOREN BANKS ON SYMPATHY

THE RULING COMBINE IS HOPING THE FORMER CWM’S ARREST TRIGGERS A TRIBAL BACKLASH AGAINST THE BJP, WHICH IN TURN IS TRYING TO PAINT THE ED ACTION AS EVIDENCE OF THEIR CORRUPTION

- AMITABH SRIVASTAVA

You know from whom we need to save the country… JMM [Jharkhand Mukti Morcha], Congress aur INDI gathbandhan [INDIA alliance] ke jo karname hain…. JMM aur Congress ke thikanon se jo noton ke bandal nikal rahe hain… yahan mantri, mantri ka PA, PA ka bhi naukar [the deeds of the Congress-JMM and INDIA coalition, the bundles of notes that are being recovered from JMM-Congress hideouts… here minister, the personal assistant of the minister and the personal assistant’s servant]....” Prime Minister Narendra [paused significantly as he left the sentence hanging during his address at a rally on May 11 in Jharkhand’s Chatra district. “Maine to kabhi apni aankhon se itne note nahin dekhe [I have never seen so much money],” he went on to say, as the audience cheered lustily at his statement.

The PM was alluding to the more than Rs 32 crore worth of “unaccounted-for” cash the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had allegedly recovered on May 6 from a flat linked to Jahangir Alam, the domestic help of Jharkhand officer Sanjeev Lal. Lal himself is the personal secretary of the state’s rural development minister, Alamgir Alam. While Lal and his domestic help were the first to be taken into custody, the ED arrested Alamgir on May 15 after two days of questioning in what it alleges is a money-laundering case. The minister has denied that the money recovered by the ED belonged to him.