The virtual world is abuzz with theories and finger-pointing over how Raghubar Das, Jharkhand’s first chief minister to complete a full term, fell so badly in the eyes of the people.
And those floating the theories and pointing fingers include senior bureaucrats — both serving and former ones — and persons committed to the BJP.
Former state BJP president Ravindra Kumar Ray, who was denied a ticket during the Lok Sabha election earlier this year, posted a cryptic comment in Hindi on his Facebook page on Sunday, a day before counting of the Assembly election votes.
“Looking from the top an object looks smaller than its actual size. Likewise, when a person occupies an important and authoritative post he mocks and looks down upon others. There is no talk even if you slay. But if we murmur our pain we become infamous. But you will be cursed by our pain,” he wrote.
Ray, who was the sitting Koderma MP when he was denied the ticket, drew an analogy with the Mahabahrat when asked to explain the context of his post. “I have expressed my feelings and being a party worker I am in deep pain.... Ravan built Lanka out of gold but people were dissatisfied. I am not putting the blame on a single person. The Mahabharat war turned lakhs of women into widows and Duryodhan was not the single man responsible... Dhritarashtra and Bhishma were equally responsible,” he said.
Another senior serving bureaucrat was blunt enough to post that the “arrogance and misdeeds” of his courtiers and “selected bureaucrats” had let Das down.
The bureaucrat, who later deleted his post, said that Das’s arrogance leading to his fall was too simple an explanation. “Two gentlemen — one a senior bureaucrat and another a junior Secretariat functionary — proved to be his nemesis. The senior bureaucrat combined the role of Rasputin, Goebbels and Amar Singh, all in one, while the junior bhaiya was his means to meet the ends. The senior bhaiya took full advantage of the CM’s trust and made hay while the sun shone,” the serving bureaucrat wrote in his now-deleted post that he allowed The Telegraph to quote from.
The senior bureaucrat had attained his position by dint of his being a “master manipulator”, the serving bureaucrat wrote. “Thereafter, he started putting an iron curtain around the CM and only fed disinformation to him. He disregarded, sidelined and insulted the senior, well-meaning, upright officers and intimidated the junior bureaucrats into submission.”
Ayodhya Nath Mishra, who was part of the BJP’s manifesto committee, wrote on Facebook that Das had the ultimate say in deciding candidates and the pre-election survey for which the party hired professionals. “Questions have been raised over how dependable the professional survey was,” observed Mishra.
