Two organisations of rights activists and civil society members have called for a campaign across Jharkhand’s 14 Lok Sabha constituencies to defeat the BJP in next year’s general election.

They have coined the slogan “Hindutva nahi, Bandhutva (Not Hindutva but friendship)”.

The Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha, a coalition of human rights and tribal rights groups, and the civil society organisation Loktantrik Rashtra Nirman Abhiyan have begun the campaign with meetings in Chaibasa, part of the Singhbhum parliamentary seat. Meetings are also planned in Chatra and Ranchi.

“We have groups and individuals joining us who broadly identify the BJP as a threat to the nation and want the country to retain its secular identity rather than become a Hindu Rashtra,” said Mandhan, a key Abhiyan functionary.

“We have drafted pamphlets that will be distributed among the people attending our meetings and programmes. The pamphlet's tagline is ‘Hindutva nahi, Bandhutva’.”

Manthan added: “We will be holding small meetings in all the 14 constituencies and all the district headquarters with members of civil societies and political groups. We will request political parties opposed to the BJP’s ideology to forge an alliance to avoid splitting the (anti-BJP) vote during the 2024 parliamentary polls.”

Sources in the Mahasabha said the tagline had been coined keeping in mind the BJP’s stress on its Hindutva ideology and its politics of targeting minorities and dividing communities.

“The pamphlets talk about the fragmentation and distortion of the concept and structure of democracy, the nation, the Constitution and citizenship by the BJP-RSS combine,” tribal rights activist Elina Horo, a member of the Mahasabha, said.

“Repression is going on against Muslims, other minorities, Dalits, tribal people, backward communities, democratic agitators and anti-BJP parties as part of efforts to turn India into a Hindu Rashtra.”

Horo added: “The pamphlets also cite how the BJP-led central government is using its agencies such as the CBI, ED and the income-tax department to intimidate the Opposition. Even social activists and those who raise the voice of dissent are being suppressed through draconian laws like the (anti-terror law) UAPA.”

Women’s rights activist Aloka Kujur said: “The pamphlets also portray the rising inflation, weakening social security, and the increasing unemployment as the Modi government sells or hands over the country’s resources and (public) companies one by one to a few corporate houses. The loot of the water, forestland and minerals of the tribal communities has become more intense.”

The Abhiyan was formed in October 2022 at a meeting in Delhi attended by individuals and organisations ideologically opposed to the BJP.

It has units in Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar and Delhi. It has members in Chhattisgarh and Odisha and will soon have functional units in these two states.

The Mahasabha is a coalition of organisations formed in 2018 to defend people’s rights and democratic values in Jharkhand, which was then ruled by Raghubar Das’s BJP government.

It now has a significant presence in almost all the 24 districts of the state and regularly raises issues of human rights violations, communal hatred and the alleged looting of natural resources by PSUs and corporate units.

In 2019, the BJP bagged 11 of Jharkhand’s 14 parliamentary seats while its ally, Ajsu, won one seat. The JMM-Congress-RJD alliance won just two seats.