Once again, with elections to Jharkhand assembly knocking at the door, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has fired his salvo of lies, with the promise to introduce uniform civil code (UCC) for the state while exempting tribal communities from its implementation, once it comes to power. Having mastered the art of speaking untruths in the party interests, Shah used the illegal Bangladeshi immigration as the whipping chip to arouse communal feeling and polarise the Hindu voters before the two phase assembly polls on November 13 and November 20 this year.
Addressing a rally on Sunday in Ranchi, he reiterated his old gimmick and falsehood of migrants, specially the Bangladeshi migrants, of grabbing tribal land “by marrying tribal girls through false pretensions”. “The tribal population is dwindling due to infiltration. Soren government is in denial. We halted this in Assam and will do it here,” he said. “We will identify and deport each and every one of the infiltrators and take back the lands they usurped from the tribal people through gift-deeds.”
The tactics of wooing the tribals by invoking the sensitive land issue in Jharkhand have mischievous intentions. It is a known fact that RSS Parivar and saffron ecosystem have been expert in the game of subverting the facts. It was on February 19, 2019, precisely during the Modi rule, more than 5 lakh tribals of Jharkhand had staged protest against the acquisition of their ancestral property, along with water, forest, and land in Ranchi. Because the government had neglected their demands, they have now decided to campaign on the streets. The Supreme Court on February 13 had ordered state governments to evict an estimated one million members of Adivasi and other forest communities.
This was not something new. Adivasis have to sacrifice themselves for the prosperity of the country. Will Shah clarify what rehabilitation arrangement the Modi government had arranged for these hapless tribals? Obviously they had no alternative but to move out of state to some other destination. Shah has been confusing the people.
He said the Adivasi population is on decline. But he did not underscore Modi’s appeasement policies for big business like Adanis. Adani’s Godda power station has their land stolen, their crops destroyed, and the tribals have been beaten by police. They are still resisting Adani’s coal plans despite this oppression and intimidation. They have started a petition against Adani’s coal plans and are calling on people around the world to support them. In India, just as in Australia, Adani’s destructive coal plans are violating Indigenous land rights, destroying precious water and the local environment and putting threatened species at risk. Adani’s Godda coal plant will drain 36 billion litres of water every year from the sacred Ganges River, potentially putting threatened species such the Gangetic dolphin at risk, as well as crucial fish stocks. Adani management have already started sucking up huge amounts of water from the surrounding villages in Godda with local farmers reporting their wells are running dry and their crops are failing.”
A study published recently by Sama Resource Group for Women and Health (2018), titled ‘From the Margins to the Centre‘ focuses on the health inequities among the tribal communities in selected districts of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha’. It was supported by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and emphatically highlights the link between the poor health status of tribal communities and their marginalised location in the socio-economic and political contexts.
It is widely known that Land alienation, loss of access and control over forests, enforced displacement due to development projects and lack of proper rehabilitation, and indebtedness have been some of the key reasons for the marginalisation of Adivasis leading to decline of tribal population, but Amit Shah simply for giving a shape to his Hindutva politics, has been blaming the migrants.
The tribals have demanded that the government should seek permission from the villagers before land acquisition in any way; a tribal body should be created that enforces tribal rights; CNT Act (Chotanagpur Tenancy Act) and SPT Act (Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act) should be strictly implemented; Collective land should be freed from the hold of Bhumi Bank and Land Acquisition Act, 2013 should be enforced immediately. But Modi government is not at all interested as it hamper the interest of the big businesses and particularly of Adanis.
Quite intriguing Modi and Shah have been going around and telling the people that illegal migrants have been primarily responsible for all the ills. But ironically they have not been ordering the SB or IB to identify these people. Earlier the Jharkhand High Court had directed the union government to conduct such enquiry. It had expressed displeasure over the non-filing of reply by the Centre, Intelligence Bureau, UIDAI and the BSF. The state government was ordered to identify the infiltrators with the help of Special Branch. The Deputy Commissioners of all the six districts of Santhal Pargana division were also asked not to issue Aadhaar cards, ration cards, voter cards, BPL cards without matching them with the land records. But Modi government did not act.
On Sunday while parroting his old appeasing lines, Shah blamed ‘Hemant Soren and the JMM government are spreading false propaganda that the UCC will impact tribal rights, culture and relevant legislation, which is totally baseless as they will be kept out of its ambit”. Once again, he told lies. How could keep tribals away from the ambit of this law? Who was he trying to fool?
Modi government had some time back told the Jharkhand High Court that the growing presence of illegal Bangladeshi migrants in Santhal Pargana area of the tribal state is alarming. Modi and Shah did not furnish any data Strange the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta who joined the court proceedings virtually, said infiltrators can enter other states. He should have suggested the court about the mechanism it could check this.
Modi will be visiting Jharkhand soon and according to sources, will like Shah, harp and highlight migration issue. He will address around 12 meetings. In the next two weeks. This underlines the importance of Jharkhand for his political survival. In Jharkhand, polling will be held on November 13 and 20 for an 81-member Assembly, but Modi will continue to hold meetings till November 18.
Meanwhile Hemant Soren is planning to make repeal of the anti-Jharkhand domicile policy of the previous government and issue of enacting “Operation Suraksha”, a mechanism to end human trafficking in Jharkhand by 2027, a big issue. Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha has also been raising people’s issues and mobilising people against communal and fascist forces. It believes that JMM must fight for identity of the tribals, but at the same time to launch a sustained struggle against the communal BJP in close association with the leftist forces and parties. It demands that Hemant government must establish a process of regular dialogue with activists and people’s organizations. (IPA Service)