The Hemant Soren government in Jharkhand, after two years of smooth running, suddenly started facing opposition from various sections the people of the state.

While the issue of language has snowballed into a major controversy when both the tribals and non-tribals criticised the state government, activists from various organisations also protested against it on other issues like human rights violation.

The language problem started with local residents of Dhanbad and Bokaro districts protesting against inclusion of Bhojpuri and Maghi as regional languages permitted in those two districts for writing test for district level recruitment of Class X and XII passed candidates for filling up vacancies in 3rd and 4th grade jobs.

While the protesters, under the banner of Jharkhandi Bhasha Sangharsh Samiti, had earlier burnt effigies of all MPs and MLAs of that region irrespective of their political affiliation for ignoring interests of the local youths. They also formed a 40-km long human chain across those districts on January 30.

The protest then spread to Ranchi where another outfit, Adivasi Sena, also staged demonstration at Albert Ekka Chowk last week, demanding consideration of 1932 survey settlement records for determining domicile and deletion of outside languages.

The other side also started voicing their grievances.

“The languages and culture of Jharkhand must be respected but that doesn't mean those speaking other languages should be neglected,” said Kailash Yadav of the Bhojpuri-Maghi-Angika Manch, adding they were also living in the state for decades.

He also criticised the role of education minister Jagarnath Mahto, alleging he openly supported deletion of Bhojpuri and Maghi from the list of regional languages permitted.

The minister, however, later clarified his position.

“I spoke that in the context of Dhanbad and Bokaro districts where people of not even a single village speak those two languages,” the minister said while speaking to a local channel.

Not only language issue, various other people’s organisations also participated in a dharna, organised by the Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha near the Raj Bhavan in Ranchi on February 8, to protest against issues like “oppressive attitude of the police and security forces, cases of human rights violations and illegal mining in Jharkhand”.

“The current government had got a clear mandate against the anti-people policies and activities of the Raghubar Das government,” they said, adding adivasis and moolvasis (permamanent settlers), especially the marginalised, continued to face oppression by the police and administration who often slap cases under the UAPA on them although the current government is somewhat better than the BJP government.

The current government had promised withdrawal of cases against the tribals in the pathalgadi movement but no action has been taken so far, they further alleged, adding the government was also silent on complaints about illegal mining at many places.

“We demand the withdrawal of all pathalgadi cases and also removal of CRPF camps from rural schools,” said economist-activist Jean Dreze who also participated in the dharna, adding “the government had created an atmosphere of fear in the name of security and is doing injustice with people in the name of justice”.