The Truth about
Modi Government celebrating ‘Tribal Pride Day’
- SR Darapuri,
National President All India Peoples Front
Today the Modi
government is celebrating ‘Tribal Pride Day’ across the country in the name of
‘Virsa Munda Jayanti.’ According to an article published by Union Tribal
Affairs Minister Arjun Munda in a newspaper, it is Prime Minister Narendra
Modi's respect and unwavering love for the Tribal society and its culture that
he has named the birth anniversary of Lord Virsa Munda as 'Tribal Pride Day'.
By announcing the celebration, the respect of the Tribal society has been
increased in the entire country. Today, this is the third year when our country
is celebrating ‘Tribal Pride Day’ with full respect, honour, and enthusiasm.
The article further states that 'Tribal Pride Day' is a proof of the
government's commitment towards the welfare and empowerment of these
marginalized groups. Through various policies, programs and laws, the Central
Government aims to uplift the Tribal society and remove historical injustice.
The article also talks about further strengthening the rights of the Tribal
community through the Forest Rights Act, PESA and other laws.
Let us see what
is the truth of the above claims of Modi government regarding Tribal people?
Especially when the Modi government has made a Tribal woman, Mrs. Draupadi
Murmu, the President of India to influence the Tribals. This can be seen from
the following brief discussion: -
1.
Landlessness, joblessness, and poverty among Tribals:
According to
2011 census, 35.65% Tribals in the country are landless and only 8% of them are
employed in government and private sector. Among Tribals, 44.7% families are
below the poverty line with a monthly income of only Rs 816. 79% of Tribal
families fall in the extremely deprived category. From this you can imagine how
landless, unemployed and victims of poverty the Tribal society is in the
country. It is also noteworthy that even after the arrival of Modi government
at the Centre since 2014, there has been no improvement in the condition of the
Tribals because no concrete efforts have been made by this government for the
welfare and empowerment of the Tribals. On the contrary, they have been
deprived of land.
2. Failure of
the Forest Rights Act made to give land rights to Tribals:
In 2006, the then UPA government had enacted
the Forest Rights Act to give land rights to the Tribals, which came into force
in 2008. The main objective of this Act was to give the Tribals and Forest Dwellers
the right to ownership of the land under their control so that they can live
permanently at one place and earn their living by farming on the land received
under this Act. Unfortunately, due to the anti-Tribal and anti-Dalit mentality
of the government machinery, this law was not implemented honestly due to which
the Tribals/Forest Dwellers could not get ownership rights of the land. The
state governments did not show the desired level of will power and interest in
this. As a result, Tripura, Kerala, and Orissa were the only three states in
the entire country where land was allotted to Tribals under this Act. The
credit for this goes to the Communist government of Tripura and Kerala and the
activism of Tribal organizations and Patnaik government in Orissa.
Instead of
strictly implementing the Forest Rights Act, the Modi government formed at the
Centre in 2014 has worked to thwart it because it is committed to handing over
land in Tribal areas to the corporates for mining. This is the reason that in
2019, when the hearing of the PIL started in the Supreme Court filed by the
Wildlife Trust organization to remove the illegal encroachment on the forest
land and vacate it and hand it over to the Forest Department, there was no one
from the Modi government to present the side of the Tribals. Government lawyer
did not appear. It was also said in this petition that apart from illegal
encroachment on forest land, the land whose claims have been cancelled under
the Forest Rights Act should also be vacated because in the eyes of the law, that
too is illegal encroachment. The result of this was that the Supreme Court
passed an ex-party order in which all the states were ordered to vacate all the
land with cancelled claims under the Forest Rights Act and submit the
compliance report to the Forest Department by July 24, 2019. The number of Tribal
families affected by this order of the Supreme Court is approximately 20 lakhs
in the entire country, of which Uttar Pradesh also has 74,700 families. Against
this order of the Supreme Court, our party All India People's Front, along with
some other organizations, filed an appeal against the said order, in which we
appealed to the Supreme Court against the order of eviction from the land
having cancelled forest rights claims. requested a stay and direct all states
to re-examine all claims, which the Supreme Court accepted. At present, due to
the same order, the eviction of Tribals and c is on hold. It is
extremely regrettable that the work of re-examining these claims is going on at
a very slow pace in BJP ruled states, which exposes the claims of Tribal love
of the Modi government.
3. Violation of
forest rights of Tribals by Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act-2023:
By this amendment many types of land have
been taken out of the scope of the Forest Conservation Act -1980. With this, it
will be possible to build zoos, entertainment places and Safaris in the forest
land. Similarly, land can be acquired for defence works up to 100 kilometers
near the border of China and Pakistan. Similarly, the condition of taking prior
permission of Gram Sabha for converting forest land for non-forest purpose has
been removed. This will lead to a huge reduction in forest land which is not in
the interest of the Tribals. Through the new amendment, the work of
reforestation can also be given to private individuals and organizations
including corporates. This will lead to violation of the community rights of Tribals
and Forest Dwellers on forest. This amendment brought by Modi government is an
attack on the interests of Tribals/Forest Dwellers.
4. Tribal
existence in crisis:
RSS and BJP
call the Tribals (Adivasi) as Forest Dwellers (Vanvasi) instead of Tribals and
run their organization under the name of Forest Dwellers. There is a deep trick
of RSS behind this. Everyone knows that there are different communities living
in our country who have their own religions and different identities. The
tribals, who are called Scheduled Tribes in the Constitution, are also a
separate community, which has its own religion, its own gods and goddesses and
a distinct culture. They have different geographical areas and have different
identities.
Even in our
Constitution, these geographical areas have been called Tribal Areas and there
is a provision for a separate administrative system for them. Under this
system, the administrative system of these areas is not under the Chief
Minister of the state but directly under the Governor and the President of
India, for whose assistance there is a Tribal Area Council which has a separate
structure. There are also Schedules 5 and 6 of the Constitution to protect
their rights.
In these areas,
instead of the normal Panchayat Raj system at the village level, there is a
special Gram Panchayat system called Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas
Act, 1996) i.e., PESA and this is the traditional Gram Panchayat system for
village swaraj. In this, the Panchayat has the right over all the natural
resources/minerals in the Panchayat and the profit from them can be spent only
on the development of the village. But this is a conspiracy of the governments
of different political parties under which this system has been implemented
only in some Tribal Areas.
Apart from
this, it is also noteworthy that Dalits and Tribals have been listed as
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in our Constitution. Apart from political
reservation, they have been given reservation in government services and
education. Even in our census, they are counted separately by sub-caste.
Apart from
this, Hindu Marriage Act and Hindu Inheritance Law also do not apply to the Tribals.
For these reasons, the Tribal community has its own separate religion, separate
gods and goddesses, separate rituals, and separate culture. The Tribals have
been demanding the name of their religion “Sarna” in the Census but Modi
government is not agreeing to it. As such the Tribals are listed as Hindus or
as Others.
Due to the
reasons mentioned above, the RSS calls the Tribals as Vanavasis (Forest dwellers)
instead of Adivasi because calling them tribal would force them to consider
themselves as Aryans and the Tribals as non-Aryans (indigenous people). This
will destroy the Hindutva model of RSS which talks about Integralism. That is
why RSS is continuously engaged in Hinduizing the Tribals. In this it has also
got success in some areas which is used to attack and harass non-Hindus. It is
also a fact that Christian missionaries have also Christianized some Tribals,
but they have not used them to attack non-Christian people.
The main aim of
RSS is to bring the Tribals into the model of Hindutva by calling them forest
dwellers instead of tribals and by Hinduizing them and using them to suppress
non-Hindus. Along with this, wrong laws have been made to stop their religious
conversion, whereas our Constitution gives the right to religious freedom to
all citizens.
In many states,
Tribals who were Christians are being forcibly made to return home and
converted into Hindus. Here, RSS has started Hinduisation of Tribal children
(slogan of Jai Shri Ram and establishment of Ram as a deity) by establishing
single teacher schools in Tribal areas. Apart from this, RSS has already been
Hinduizing Tribal children by running many Vanvasi Ashrams. This process has
become even faster with the establishment of BJP governments in most of the
states of the country.
Thus, RSS is
trying to deny the existence of Tribals by declaring them as Forest Dwellers.
This is a threat not only to the Tribals but to the diversity of the entire
country. Therefore, the Tribals will have to understand this trick of RSS and
foil the conspiracy to erase their identity.
It is clear
from the above discussion that Modi government's tribal love is just an
illusion and it has no interest in the welfare and empowerment of the Tribals.
It adopts various tactics like celebrating Tribal Pride Day just to get their
votes.
