The ongoing tug-of-war between Jharkhand governor Ramesh Bais and chief minister Hemant Soren took a new dimension on Monday evening with Soren openly stating that the state government will have the final say on any issue concerning the state and not the governor.

Addressing the Khatiyani Johar Yatra at Seraikela-Kharsawan district on Monday, Soren said: “I came to know this morning that newspapers have written about the governor returning a bill, which had proposed to use the 1932 Khatiyan (land survey record) to determine domicile status, back to the state government. This is nothing new and the BJP-led central government is using governors to harass non-BJP states across the country. But I would like to warn them that it is Jharkhand, not Delhi or Jammu and Kashmir or Andaman and Nicobar. It would function according to the desire of the elected government and not on the dictates of the governor.”

“If the governor has the intention of playing with the constitutional post of the chief minister, we will not let it happen. The present government has been elected by the moolvasis (original settlers), Adivasis (tribals) and backward people and will work to safeguard their interests at any cost.

“For long, outsiders had ruled over us considering us as boka (fools), par ye boka log itna thokega ki rajniti bhul jayenge (but now these simpletons will hit them so hard that they will forget doing politics),” said Soren.

The governor has returned five bills since assuming office in July 2021.

The Jharkhand Finance (Amendment) Bill 2021 was returned twice citing defects. The Mob-Violence and Mob Lynching Bill 2021, Pandit Raghunath Murmu Tribal University Bill 2021 and Jharkhand Excise (Amendment) Bill 2022 were also returned apart from Jharkhand Definition of Local Persons and for Extending the Consequential, Social, Cultural and Other Benefits to Such Local Persons Bill 2022, the domicile bill based on 1932 land records.

Out of these, only the tribal university bill was finally cleared by the governor last year. According to a statement issued by the governor’s secretariat on Sunday evening, the governor has asked the state government to “review the legality” of the domicile bill and said that it should be “in accordance with the Constitution and orders and directions of the Supreme Court”.

During the review of the bill, it was found that the bill is “against the provision of the Constitution and orders of the Supreme Court”, the statement said.

The Jharkhand Assembly had in November last year unanimously passed the bill at a special session with a provision that it would come into force only after the Centre carries out an amendment to include it in the Ninth Schedule, putting it beyond judicial scrutiny.

According to the bill, people whose ancestors were living in the state before 1932 and whose names were included in that year’s land records will be considered local residents of Jharkhand and deemed eligible for job reservation.

The government had urged the governor to give his consent to the bill and send it for the President’s approval.

Questioning the governor’s statement terming the bill as unconstitutional, Soren said: “Is it unconstitutional to make laws to safeguard the interest of the state’s masses? Even when there was agitation for separate statehood of Jharkhand, these parties had termed our agitation unconstitutional. We had made the bill and want the Centre to give its approval for the betterment of locals of state.”

The chief minister then raised pointed questions on the BJP-led Centre ignoring Jharkhand’s ‘legitimate’ demands and questioned whether they were ‘constitutional’.

“I raised a demand before our Prime Minister to provide funds for the construction of houses for 8.5 lakh homeless poor in Jharkhand under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana on several occasions. But we have not received a single reply even as the PM says that every homeless person will get home. Is it constitutional to stop funds for the construction of houses for the homeless poor?” asked Soren.

Hemant Soren welcomed by tribal priests at Seraikela-Kharsawan on Monday evening. Bhola Prasad

He continued by raising issues of extension of the GST compensation period to the states.

“Several states had asked the Centre on several forums for the extension of the GST compensation period that ended in June 2022. But the Centre didn’t listen and as a result, Jharkhand faced a revenue shortfall to the tune of over Rs 5,000 crore per annum. Is it constitutional on the part of the Centre not to listen to the state’s legitimate demand, especially backward states like Jharkhand?” he asked.

The next question was against clearing outstanding dues with the arms of the coal ministry PSU CIL, pegged by the state at Rs 1.36 lakh crore.

“Is it constitutional on the part of the Centre not to deliberately clear our legitimate dues worth crores?” questioned Soren.

The chief minister warned of massive agitation if any attempt is made against the implementation of the domicile bill.

“We will not hesitate to launch a massive agitation if any attempt is made to disturb us in implementing the 1932 Khatiyani bill. I will read the letter sent by governor as I reach Ranchi. We will not sit idle, we will fight it out,” said Soren.

JMM central general secretary and the party spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharya, addressing the media in Ranchi on Monday evening, said that the state government would consult with legal experts and again send the bill back to the governor for his consent.

“We will also politically expose the BJP’s real intention on the 1932 domicile bill before the masses as everyone knows how the governor has been used by the Centre,” said Bhattacharya.

The tension between the governor and the chief minister came to the fore in August last year over the threat of the latter’s disqualification as an MLA on the basis of the purported Election Commission opinion sent in a sealed envelope to the governor in an alleged office of profit case which was raised by the BJP in February last year.

However, the governor has not made the opinion public even as there were repeated demands from Soren to clear the air amid allegations by the chief minister that the governor was colluding with the central government by destabilising their elected government with his silence on the issue.