The sentiment which emerged after the ouster of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on August 5 and subsequent targeting of Hindus, on the allegations of being the supporters of her Awami League party, is being cashed in on by the Bharatiya Janata Party in poll-bound Jharkhand.
Although the saffron party is apparently trying to woo Adivasis, who are mostly followers of Sarnaism (12.52%) and Christianity (4.31%), yet actually it has the 67.83% Hindu votes in mind while raising the bogey of Bangladeshi infiltrators.
Usually, the alleged influx from Bangladesh is made an election issue in Assam, West Bengal, Tripura and Meghalaya, which share international borders with it. The BJP also makes infiltrators a poll issue in the Seemanchal region of north-east Bihar, though it has no common border with Bangladesh.
A narrow strip of land in West Bengal separates Bihar’s Kishanganj district from Bangladesh. On October 18, union minister Giriraj Singh launched his five-day Hindu Swabhiman Yatra in this region – considered as a pre-poll exercise for next year’s assembly election in Bihar.
Similarly, the Sahebganj district of Jharkhand is much further away from Bangladesh. Yet the BJP has suddenly been reminded about the change of demographic balance in Jharkhand.
BJP’s failure to guard borders
As Jharkhand has 14.53% Muslims who, combined with 26.21% Scheduled Tribes form about 41% of the electorate, the BJP was politically compelled to drive a wedge between these two social groups. Recent developments in Bangladesh provided the BJP an opportunity to raise the issue of Bangladeshi men allegedly marrying Adivasi women.
Even if BJP’s charge of infiltration is accepted anywhere in India, the state government is not primarily responsible as the international boundary is being guarded by the Border Security Force, which is under the control of Union home ministry, headed by Amit Shah, who on November 3 kicked off his poll campaign with the promise of throwing out the infiltrators. He also promised that the BJP would implement Uniform Civil Code, but would exclude Adivasis from it.
The chief minister of Jharkhand, Hemant Soren, was quick to respond by stating that the BJP is blaming the state government for infiltration when the Narendra Modi government itself has given shelter to none else but Sheikh Hasina. He also assured that neither the UCC nor the NRC would be implemented in Jharkhand and that only the Chota Nagpur Tenancy Act and Santhal Parganas Tenancy Act would be implemented to protect tribal land.
Adivasis in Assam
Himanta Biswa Sarma, the chief minister of Assam, has been assigned the task of leading the BJP’s campaign in Jharkhand. This is simply because he specialises in raking up the issue of infiltrators in his own state.
But what Sarma is not discussing is the sorry plight of lakhs of Adivasis, mostly Santhals, who were forcibly uprooted by the British imperialists from the same land now called Jharkhand to be settled in tea gardens of Assam in 19th century. More than 150 years later, they are yet to get the status of Scheduled Tribes there. Tension between Adivasis and aboriginal tribes of Assam is very palpable. Bloody Bodo-Santhal clashes are quite common – the latter had to pay dearly in most of them.
Instead, Sarma and other BJP leaders are busy raising the emotive issue of Bangladeshis engaged in the alleged “land jihad” and “love jihad.”
Also read: BJP’s Poll Promises for Jharkhand: Tribals Exempt from UCC, Action Against ‘Infiltrators’
Adivasi-outsider tussle
The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha was formed more than five decades back, among others by Shibu Soren, father of Hemant Soren. It was a movement against the dikkus (outsiders) and money lenders who had come from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Gujarat etc and settled here. A sizeable number of them are from upper castes or belong to affluent trading communities. The tribals accuse them of exploiting the poor original population of the mineral-rich region.
The tussle between Adivasis and outsiders continues till now. During the last BJP rule between 2014 and 2019, the relationship worsened further. The BJP made Raghubar Das the first non-tribal chief minister of the state created in the name of Adivasis. Like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he is a Teli. Das’s ancestors are from Madhya Pradesh.
His policy helped the corporate lobby further consolidate its position. The tribals went on a warpath against him.
The BJP was voted out in 2019 and Das lost from his own constituency. The BJP could win only two out of the 28 ST reserved seats, down from 11 in 2014.
The poor performance continued in the Lok Sabha election held five months back, when the saffron party lost all five reserved seats. This included the then union minister and former chief minister Arjun Munda from Khunti. Hemant Soren, who was then in jail, is once again playing the victim card in the Assembly election campaign. He is repeatedly asserting that he had to undergo so much trouble simply because he stood for tribals’ rights.
Apart from the 28 ST reserved seats, the state has nine Scheduled Castes seats.
It is in the remaining 44 general seats where the National Democratic Alliance is in a relatively comfortable position. It is here that communal polarisation and the issue of Bangladeshi infiltrators really work. The NDA won all nine non-tribal seats in the last parliamentary election.
This time around, the BJP is contesting in 68 seats, the All Jharkhand Students’ Union party in 10, Janata Dal (United) in two and Lok Janshakti Party in one. AJSU is considered as the party of Kudmi Mahato, an OBC having substantial population in the state.
Complaint against Sarma
Meanwhile, the INDIA bloc (JMM, Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal and CPI ML) on November 2 complained to the Election Commission against the divisive speeches of Himanta Biswa Sarma. It alleged that the Assam chief minister has been falsely accusing the Jharkhand government of inviting Bangladeshi infiltrators to boost the electoral prospects of the alliance. The INDIA bloc has threatened that it would take up the matter in court if the Election Commission fails to take notice of the complaint.
Soroor Ahmed is a political commentator.
