Shibu Soren back as Coal Minister – was Manmohan threatened? – BJP and Oppositions starts move on tainted ministers again 
Kranti Chatterjee, Special Correspondent
November 28, 2004

Shibu Soren is back as coal minister four months before the election in Jharkhand. BJP and the opposition parties called on Manmohan Singh to stop game playing with political firecrackers. The issue is much more serious than what Congress think says a senior BJP official. In Delhi, there is a strong rumor that Shibu Soren threatened the Government that he would divulge secret deals of senior Congress ministers include people right at the top. The BJP plans to take this matter to the main street of India.

Shibu Soren, a tribal leader facing charges of inciting arson and violence, was reappointed as a government minister on Saturday, just four months after he quit. The move by the Congress-led government was expected to spark fresh protests by opposition parties over politicians facing criminal charges becoming ministers. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh named Soren as Minister of Coal in a move seen as aimed at placating his regional political group ahead of elections in his home state of Jharkhand early next year. Soren resigned from his post as Minister for Coal and Mines four months ago after an arrest warrant was issued for his alleged role in tribal violence in 1975. He evaded arrest for more than two weeks and then turned himself in to police. He has since been granted bail, paving the way for him to return to the government. Soren, the leader of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha party, has denied inciting arson and violence during a tribal rally in Jharkhand, in which 10 people were killed. A senior Congress leader said Soren had been renamed a minister since Jharkhand would otherwise have no representatives in the central government. "We cannot afford to antagonise the state ahead of elections. Besides, Soren has also got bail," the leader, who declined to be named, told reporters. Soren was a focus of a campaign by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, who demanded that Congress dismiss several ministers charged with crimes such as corruption and attempted murder