Archive · 10 Aug 2026
Why Jharkhand protesters invoke Shibu Soren against son Hemant
People in a state in India called Jharkhand are upset.
They say the government cheated during big school exams.
The leader of the state government is a man named Hemant Soren.
The people protesting do not like what his government did.
But they really liked Hemant's father, Shibu Soren.
Shibu Soren helped make Jharkhand its own state many years ago.
The protesters hold up pictures of Shibu Soren, and also of famous leaders Bhagat Singh and B R Ambedkar.
They think Hemant Soren forgot the good things his father stood for.
This is not the first time this has happened in India.
Sometimes people use a leader's parent or hero to show that the leader changed for the worse.
Protesters in Jharkhand are holding an indefinite protest over irregularities in state competitive exams against the Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) government.
Protesters carried placards of late JMM founder Shibu Soren, alongside Bhagat Singh and B R Ambedkar, separating the father's legacy from the son's politics.
Shibu Soren led the movement for a separate tribal state of Jharkhand, a demand fulfilled in 2000 when the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government carved the state out of Bihar.
The article says the template is not new, citing Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena celebrating Balasaheb Thackeray while attacking Uddhav Thackeray.
Historian Ramchandra Guha's account of Emergency-era (1975-77) criticism of Indira Gandhi is cited as a past example of leaders being accused of undermining family and party legacies.
- Who
- Protesters in Jharkhand demonstrating against the Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) government
- What
- An indefinite protest over irregularities in state competitive exams, with placards invoking late JMM founder Shibu Soren's legacy
- When
- Not explicitly dated in the articles; the protest is described as ongoing and indefinite, with a tribute event held on World Indigenous Day
- Where
- Jharkhand, India; tributes to Shibu Soren were also held at Morhabadi Ground
- Why
- Accusations of irregularities in state competitive exams and the belief that the government has fallen from the ideological ideals of the JMM and Shibu Soren
- Protest trigger
- Irregularities in state competitive exams
- Government targeted
- Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) government
- Protest status
- Indefinite protest
- Placard figures
- Shibu Soren, Bhagat Singh, B R Ambedkar
- Shibu Soren's profile
- JMM co-founder, Padma Bhushan awardee, former chief minister, leader of Jharkhand statehood movement
- Jharkhand statehood
- Created in 2000, carved out of Bihar by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government
- Historical analogies cited
- Shiv Sena vs Uddhav Thackeray; Nehru-Gandhi family vs Congress legacy; Emergency-era criticism of Indira Gandhi
- Historian quoted
- Ramchandra Guha of 'India After Gandhi'