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A fresh tug of war has erupted between the former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders after the former’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra entered the tribal heartland of Jharkhand on Saturday, February 3.
As the yatra is set to progress from different cities of the State in the coming week, the former Congress president, after entering Jharkhand, has reiterated his allegation against the BJP for handing over the resources of the tribal (Janjati) community to the corporates.
Taking to X, the former Congress President wrote that the tribal community of the country has been weakened under a conspiracy. The Congress provided laws like Van Adhikar (Forest related rights), brought tribal bills and took steps in direction of implementing the “Sarna religion code.” Though the BJP does not want to implement any law to protect the tribal people, their goal is to hand over the land and other resources of the community to their corporate friends.
The remarks made by the former Congress President triggers a sharp reaction from the BJP’s State Unit President of Jharkhand, Babulal Marandi who while slamming the remarks of the Congress leaders reminded him that it was the Congress party who had opposed the election of Draupadi Murmu, a lady from the tribal community to the supreme post of the country (President).
Responding to Gandhi, Marandi, in a post on X further said that the Congress ignored the demands of the Janjati people for the creation of Jharkhand State for five decades. It was the BJP that created Janjati, dominated Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh State, formed the Janjati ministry, and started celebrating the birth anniversary of Bhagwan Birsa Munda as Janjatiye Gaurav Divas.
The BJP stalwart further asserted that the BJP is empowering the community by linking them to the mainstream via schemes like Pradhanmantri Janman Yojna, Vandhan Yojna, and other public welfare schemes, though the country has witnessed how the Congress party has exploited the tribal community after independence.
The people of the tribal community will not fall prey to the bluff of the Congress party, which made the State of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh as its ATM and looted the rights of the community to fulfil its lockers, added the former CM, Marandi in the end of his long post.
Contention over Sarna Code
It is to be noted that a section of the people hailing from the Janjati community have been hitting the streets in support of a separate religion code in the past few years in Jharkhand. The followers of the proposed Sarna sect claimed their disassociation with the Sanatan Dharma mainly on the grounds of nature worshipping.
Earlier, the former Chief Minister of Jharkhand, Hemant Soren, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking recognition and inclusion of Sarna religion code in the next census. The Jharkhand assembly in the year 2020 had also passed a resolution demanding the Sarna religion code to be included in the census and submitted it to the Union Government via State’s Governor.
However, the demand for a separate Sarna code has been so far met by fierce opposition from the other section of the Jnajati society itself, which claimed that any such demand for a separate religion code for Janjatis is part of a larger conspiracy aimed at dividing the community to promote illegal conversion and that the community is an inalienable part of the Sanatan fold.
Recently, a number of local organisations mainly active in the tribal (Janjati/Vanvasi) dominated regions of Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh also had given a call for a nationwide shutdown on December 30 for the inclusion of the Sarna Dharma (reliogion) code in the upcoming census.
The call given for a shutdown on Sarna code had also triggered reactions from the tribal leaders, who, while opposing the demand, dropped hints about the larger plot behind the call for a separate religion code.
Reacting to the demand for the Sarna code, Raj Kishore Hansda, National Co-Conveyer of the Janjati Suraksha Manch (JSM), said that under the influence of foreign conspirators, a few Janjati leaders have been putting up the demand for a separate religious code for a few years, and the demand for the Sarna religious code is prominent among them.
The Janjati leader from Jharkhand had further emphasised that the demand for the Sarna code can never be fulfilled, but still, efforts are being made to promote separatism in the name of a separate religion code in Janjati-dominated states like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh.
Hansda had also remarked that the people associated with such movements are helping the cause of foreign conspirators who are making desperate attempts to implant the seeds of separatism in innocent Janjati youths. The whole idea behind this conspiracy is to cut a section of the Janjati society from Hinduism, which will further ease the work for converting them to other religions.
Allegation of corporatisation of tribal region
It is to be noted that this is not the first time that the Congress leader has launched an attack on the BJP for alleged corporatisation of the tribal-dominated regions, and earlier, the Congress lawmaker from Waynaad had also labelled similar charges in the run-up to the Chhattisgarh Assembly election last year, triggering an intense tug of war between both parties.
Despite the allegations, the BJP made a grand return to the state, securing all tribal-dominated seats of northern region and winning 8 out of 10 seats in the tribal-dominated Bastar division of the State, suggesting a large turnaround of the Janjati community votes in favour of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led party.
The party further elected Vishnu Deo Sai, a leader from the Janjati community in Jashpur, as the first Janjati Chief Minister of the State, a move seen by many as another significant step towards party’s outreach to the community after the election of Draupadi Murmu as the President of Bharat. Earlier, the PM Modi led party had also performed exceptionally well in the tribal dominated regions of Gujrat in the State assembly election, indicating the growing acceptance of the party in the community.
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