00:00 Outlook brings to you excerpts from its latest issue titled "Farewell Ideology".
00:06 India's tryst with ideology has been more complex than the West's.
00:10 We have caste and region, language and socialism.
00:14 All these are forces in their own right.
00:17 In different times and in different contexts within our country, one has trumped the other.
00:23 Outlook's latest issue looks at some of the regional and national political parties
00:28 and the shifts in their ideological stance as they strive to navigate political power,
00:33 coalition politics and opportunism.
00:36 It is a reminder for us and for them about what they stood for once, lest we forget.
00:43 Left, Right and Centre
00:45 By Abhig Bhattacharya and Muhammad Asghar Khan from Outlook
00:49 Since the formation of Jharkhand, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha has partnered with various parties,
00:55 ranging from the Congress to the BJP.
00:58 It, however, insists that the inclusion of the marginalised is at the centre of its ideology.
01:04 On a May afternoon in 2009, a young man in his early 30s,
01:09 sporting a moustache and sharing uncanny similarities with his father, Dishom Guru, Shibu Soren,
01:16 suddenly got to know that it was his turn.
01:19 Soren's paternal house in Ramgarh, around 50 km from Jharkhand's capital, Rachi,
01:25 was yet to get over the death of their eldest son, Durga.
01:28 But the brother didn't even have time to mourn.
01:31 He had to take the mantle. He knew Guruji needed help.
01:35 The year 2009 changed the political fate of the Soren family and, by consequence, that of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha.
01:43 A new leader was born in him and Soren, who not only spoke of the rights of the marginalised,
01:49 but also emphasised Adivasi unity by evocating the Sarnadharma,
01:55 an ideological resistance to the efforts of the right-wing to incorporate Adivasis within the broader Hindu fold.
02:02 In the last 15 years, from the emergence of Soren as a humble Adivasi leader
02:07 to his recent arrest for his alleged involvement in a land scam,
02:11 the JMM has witnessed many ups and downs.
02:15 Sometimes it was found aligning politically with right-wing parties like the BJP,
02:20 with whom they have ideologically contested historically.
02:24 And sometimes it hobnobbed with traditional allies like the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal.
02:30 However, as the recent social media post of Kalpana Soren, the JMM's new face and Soren's wife, mentions,
02:38 the core ideology of the party has remained the same.
02:42 It still stands for the poor, deprived and exploited, including tribals, Dalits, backward classes and minorities, writes Soren.
02:52 To talk about the ideology, one must nevertheless look into the long journey of the party spanning more than 50 years.
02:59 The history that predates Durga, Hemant, Kalpana, Sita, Basant and other Sorens lies in the formation of a strong political ideology
03:10 that survived consecutive storms and the unwavering spirit of the Santhal leader, Shibu Soren,
03:17 who dared to speak against the moneylenders in the 1970s and held the Dikus, the outsiders, culpable for the fate of Jharkhandis.
03:27 For this and more, read the latest issue of Outlook.
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