When Jharkhand CM Soren was booed: Here's what happened at the Modi rally

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi travels to poll-bound states in a flurry of pre-election project launches and unveilings,  Bharatiya Janata Party supporters attending his public functions assume it is campaign season already, chanting “Modi, Modi” as they did during at every Modi rally in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. It’s little wonder then that Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, who became the third chief minister in recent days to be booed by BJP supporters at a government-organised public function, called his humiliation the “rape of the federal structure of the country”.

On August 16, it was Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan who was booed, followed a few days later by Haryana CM Bhupinder Hooda.

As Soren reportedly said, “…this appears to have become a trend at Modi’s programmes in non-BJP ruled states now.”

According to a report in The Indian Express , the jeering began “as soon as” Soren started to speak in Ranchi. BJP leaders tried to calm the crowd. “This worked for a moment but after two minutes the crowd started chanting “Modi Modi” in what resembled PM’s poll meetings,” according to the report.

The young chief minister of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha coalition government continued bravely, reportedly seeking an impetus to tourism in the state in order to tackle naxalism.

The JMM and the BJP are former alliance partners, having jointly ruled Jharkhand from 2009 to 2012. The JMM now runs a coalition government with the Congress and the RJD.

As the booing continued, the CM appeared to get nervous and began to address Modi as “adhyaksh mahoday”, a term usually used to address the Speaker of the Assembly or Lok Sabha.

The chief minister in fact made an attempt to reach out to Modi with a mention of their shared simple background:

“You worked in a tea stall. You have reached this position with patience,” he told Modi. “And my mother had been a maid, cleaning utensils at other people’s homes to bring me up. And I am now the chief minister,” Soren said.

According to The Times of India, Soren read from a written speech for more than 10 minutes after the jeering began. “Soren criticized the BJP’s attempt to turn the event into a political rally, saying that Modi should take serious cognizance of the attitude of his party’s workers,” the report said.

The CM would later lash out at the behaviour of BJP supporters in the crowd. In fact, fearing exactly this, he had “made an informal request to the PMO” about ensuring such hooliganism does not take place in Ranchi after Haryana and Maharashtra.

Given that the incidents have all occurred in poll-bound states, the Congress has been quick to suggest that the BJP is attempting to show the non-BJP CMs in poor light.

“The BJP has publicly humiliated the chief ministers of Jharkhand and other poll-bound states — Haryana and Maharashtra — in a conspiracy to create a poor image of the chief ministers,” JPCC chief Sukhdeo Bhagat was quoted as saying. He also alleged that  “the BJP handpicked some workers, made them sit in front during public functions and told them to heckle the chief minister."

 The Indian Express notes that a number of the BJP leaders on stage were “grinning” at the Soren’s discomfort, but incorrectly states that Modi did not address the booing. As Firstpost reported yesterday , when it was his turn to speak, Modi asked the crowds to respect the Chief Minister and behave themselves.

However, given that the incidents occurred in the span of one week, the Congress’s allegation of these being motivated and planned incidents is not so far-fetched. Whether Prime Minister Modi will heed the calls for clear demarcations between public functions and election rallies and for an all-party consensus on protocol for party supporters attending official functions remains to be seen.