Five governments in eight years and the sixth on hold. That's Jharkhand - the new state of 3.1 crore people carved out of Bihar in 2000.
Jharkhand was touted as the Ruhr of India - the state possesses 20 per cent of country's coal reserves, it has plenty of iron ore and precious metals like copper, bauxite, gold, kyanite graphite, chromite and uranium.
It even has diamond mines. With the public sector giant SAIL operating iron ore mines profitably , big industries like the Tatas firmly ensconced, the Mittlas, Jindals, Posco and De Beers among others were clearly interested in entering here.
A total of 73 MoUs with a combined value of over Rs 2.90 lakh crore were signed-mainly during Chief Minister Arjun Munda's time - but just 1.6 per cent of the amount has, however, been invested. This is in stark contrast to Orissa or the new state of Chhattisgarh, which have lesser potential, but where investments by the same industrial giants have been much higher and many projects have already gone on stream.
The continued political instability in Jharkhand ever since its inception has meant that none of the governments to date could stabilise industrial policies, frame a relief and rehabilitation policy to help land acquisition, quelling local opposition to it.
Nor could it tame Naxalite insurgency or even provide the basic infrastructure to fast track investments. But what has pitch forked the state into national reckoning yet again? It is not simply a question of the Congress wanting to keep Shibu Soren's rampaging Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) on its side during the trust vote over the nuclear deal. The long term advantages of keeping Jharkhand within the UPA fold are very clear- especial ly for the Congress and the RJD.
For the Congress, the problem at present is that the influential tribal leaders have shifted loyal ties - to the JMM and other re gional outfits and even to the NDA - resulting in new political configurations, which can be challenged only by entering into an alliance itself. The old core constituency of the Congress, made up of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, minorities and the erstwhile dominant upper caste groupings has been rent asunder by various other parties and groups.
An alliance is vital; it was the dis unity between the Congress, RJD and LJP which enabled the NDA to bag 33 seats out of 82 in the last poll. For the RJD, with its rival JD(U) ruling in Bihar, western Jharkhand is even more crucial than before. This was one reason, why Lalu Prasad dithered over the choice of Soren over Koda. With coalition politics making deep inroads and the depend ence on independents ingrained in regional politics, stability re mains the casualty and with it the industrial vision that the state had seen when it was born in 2000.
Jharkhand was touted as the Ruhr of India - the state possesses 20 per cent of country's coal reserves, it has plenty of iron ore and precious metals like copper, bauxite, gold, kyanite graphite, chromite and uranium.
It even has diamond mines. With the public sector giant SAIL operating iron ore mines profitably , big industries like the Tatas firmly ensconced, the Mittlas, Jindals, Posco and De Beers among others were clearly interested in entering here.
A total of 73 MoUs with a combined value of over Rs 2.90 lakh crore were signed-mainly during Chief Minister Arjun Munda's time - but just 1.6 per cent of the amount has, however, been invested. This is in stark contrast to Orissa or the new state of Chhattisgarh, which have lesser potential, but where investments by the same industrial giants have been much higher and many projects have already gone on stream.
The continued political instability in Jharkhand ever since its inception has meant that none of the governments to date could stabilise industrial policies, frame a relief and rehabilitation policy to help land acquisition, quelling local opposition to it.
Nor could it tame Naxalite insurgency or even provide the basic infrastructure to fast track investments. But what has pitch forked the state into national reckoning yet again? It is not simply a question of the Congress wanting to keep Shibu Soren's rampaging Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) on its side during the trust vote over the nuclear deal. The long term advantages of keeping Jharkhand within the UPA fold are very clear- especial ly for the Congress and the RJD.
For the Congress, the problem at present is that the influential tribal leaders have shifted loyal ties - to the JMM and other re gional outfits and even to the NDA - resulting in new political configurations, which can be challenged only by entering into an alliance itself. The old core constituency of the Congress, made up of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, minorities and the erstwhile dominant upper caste groupings has been rent asunder by various other parties and groups.
An alliance is vital; it was the dis unity between the Congress, RJD and LJP which enabled the NDA to bag 33 seats out of 82 in the last poll. For the RJD, with its rival JD(U) ruling in Bihar, western Jharkhand is even more crucial than before. This was one reason, why Lalu Prasad dithered over the choice of Soren over Koda. With coalition politics making deep inroads and the depend ence on independents ingrained in regional politics, stability re mains the casualty and with it the industrial vision that the state had seen when it was born in 2000.
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